The Truth Within
by Anne79
Summary: All families have secrets. Buffy's about to discover her family is somewhat normal after all. HPBtVS
1. Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: **Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me. I only own the plot.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

_Harry Potter:_ The Seventh year of HP and Co.

_Buffy:_ Inmediately after season two. For a hidden but needed reason the Buffy verse will change only for a year. Buffy was called at 14. So, she died at 16, she slept with Angel at her 17th birthday. Right now she is 17, yes like the HP crew.

Any questions ... review!

Also if there's anyone who would like to beta my work, I would appreciate it a lot if you could contact me by a review or a private message.

Now let's start this journey... enjoy.

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**THE TRUTH WITHIN**

By: Anne79

_Prologue_

"Buffy could you please sign this?" Joyce asked gently. Her eleven year old daughter came with a red lollipop in her mouth.

"Sign?" She asked.

"Yes you are a big girl now, you can sign your name. You just write your name and your last name in a pretty way nobody else can imitate" Joyce explained pulling her daughter over her lap. The girl struggled a bit to break free, but came to understand her mother's strength was way higher than her own.

"What for?" The girl asked as she grabbed the pen her mother held for her.

"Well, my old school has sent a reminder of the place they have for you there" Joyce answered smiling. "but I thought you would prefer staying here in Los Angeles" She continued as she brushed delicately her daughter's blonde hair. "You see, I went to a school in the United Kingdom... but I think it's way too far, don't you?" She asked. The girl turned and glanced at her mother shortly.

"Yes... I would like staying here with Sara and Bonnie!" The girl agreed nodding.

"Well, I'm making a small letter to explain why you are not going to go ... and they ask for your signature" Joyce explained.

"Oh" Buffy muttered as she grabbed the pen and practiced in the air. Then she proceeded to do it in the yellow looking paper. "This paper is kinda funny" The girl said, she had finished her signature with a long curly end. "Is that fine?"

"Yes Buffy perfect"

"And was it cool the school?" Buffy asked as she stood up away from her mom's grasp.

"Yes... I suppose" The woman said without giving it importance, Buffy shrugged and continued to lick her lollipop leaving the room. Her mother sighed and continued with a second letter with the same yellow fragile looking paper.

_Dear Albus, _

_I appreciate your interest in my child's well-being. We are doing fine, unfortunately I do not think it will be appropriate to bring her to Hogwarts. The threat of the Dark Lord still lingers in England... even in Europe. I prefer the safety of the distance. I prefer not to donate our actual location –you will understand I have protected our location by some spells of which you are familiar, Fawkes will be the only one link that joins us-, and I would prefer that you don't mention this to my brother, nor do I want news from him as you offered. That door was closed a long time ago, I would rather if it stayed that way._

_I hope you are well,_

_Yours truly,_

_J.S. _

She closed it with a small seal she had kept hidden. She opened the window and she noticed the flaming bird near. "Fawkes, take this to Albus" She said giving a small caress to the bird. The bird seemed to have nodded, it flew away from the window and it disappeared in a ball of fire.

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I would like to know what you think... please review. 


	2. The Lost Child

**DISCLAIMER: **Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me. I only own the plot.

_Thanks to those who read, but specially to those who bothered to review. I really like to have reviews. It's the best feedback._

_So thanks again to: _Vikbuffy92stasa Shadow High AngelBuffyandDracoLoverCladdaghGeminia

_This chapter will answer the general question you all made. _

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**THE TRUTH WITHIN**

By: Anne79

Chapter I

_The lost child_

_A vampire slayer_, she thought. All the children's tales, the myths... they were true. It was not just a silly class Professor Bins had dedicated to the most well-known myths. One girl alone to fight the darkness. Her little Buffy was one. Her only daughter, a slayer.

The first thing that had alerted her was the badly washed blood in her daughter's clothes. Then, one day she had been cleaning around, she had found a wooden stake. She had innocently thought it was something Buffy needed for the hand-craft class. Then Buffy was kicked out of her school. Joyce had thought changing towns would leave the problems behind. She had thought the fights with Hank were the cause of all. Away from Los Angeles, away from Hank, they could have once again a new opportunity.

But trouble seemed to find Buffy wherever she went. Her teachers sent notes regularly, asking Joyce to pay more attention to the dedication and priority Buffy gave to her studies. But Joyce had tried, she had hired extra teachers, she let Buffy study with Mr. Giles or Willow, whom she thought were a good influence in Buffy. But she had been wrong. How could she expect Buffy to focus in school if she had to worry about vampires and demons? She knew her daughter was smart, but one could not ask so much from her.

And now here she was, sitting in the floor like a broken doll. The idea of Buffy being a slayer hadn't crossed her mind seriously. The possibility of the existence of a slayer hadn't dared to grow in her mind, she had dismissed it more quickly than flying pigs and pregnant men. Much less than her Buffy was one. And when her only daughter had come to her – not for help, but _to_ help her: to protect her, like her brother had done when he forced her into exile- she had failed. She had not only reacted like the worse _muggle_ would have reacted.

Shock had overcome as a vampire –a vampire?!- had come out of nowhere, and Buffy had killed him. All she had learned, all she knew was quite possible had just shut itself in the deepest corner of her mind. And then Buffy had come clean...

"_Mom, I'm a vampire slayer"_ She had said. And instead of helping her, protecting her.. she had forced her out. Joyce had forced Buffy out of her life. And now only God knew where her daughter was.

There was not a trace of where she had gone. Mr. Giles didn't know anything, neither did Buffy's friends. She had asked her old friends in Los Angeles if they might get a glimpse of her, to retain her. She had even tried contacting Hank -he was in the Bahamas with some twenty something girl- it had been a total waste of time.

She had gone to the police. They knew nothing. She had a bad feeling, she knew there was something wrong. Why would Buffy not keep in touch with their friends? Was it because of the girl who had died?

That was another question in Joyce's head. Was Buffy a newly born slayer? How could she have known the other slayer, the girl who had died? If she was newly born, then why did Buffy have such a criminal record? Or her record in Los Angeles a cry for help?

She had thought Buffy would have run to Willow's. She had thought Buffy wouldn't disappear in the thin air. How wrong had she been. She didn't know what to do, what if Buffy fell into the wrong hands... what if Voldemort found Buffy before Joyce?

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"The child is missing" Severus said to Dumbledore. 

"Of which one do you speak?" Albus Dumbledore answered calmly, not raising his eyes from the letter he was writing as Severus entered abruptly.

"You know of which I speak of" Severus muttered loud enough. "We need to find the child, I cannot hide this information very long Dumbledore" He continued as his voice grew stronger. "If Voldemort finds out of the vulnerability of the situation, he will not think twice to go and get-"

"I understand Severus" The head master answered his blue twinkling eyes meeting the almost black ones of the Potions Master. "Joy did not only contact you" He explained raising and giving a letter to Fawkes. "I will go to meet her, see if we can do something"

"_If_ we can do something. Albus, do you reckon of what you are talking about?" Severus asked outraged. "He will kill the child if he gets a hold of it, that is of course after he tortures-"

"Do you forget who told you about the prophesy?" Albus asked calmly as Fawkes turned into a bright ball of fire. "We will find the child, that does not worry me" He said approached to the Potions Master. "You will stay during my absence, tell the Order to advance the plans of bringing Harry back to the headquarters"

"Black will be thrilled" Severus answered with hatred in his voice.

"The thing that worries me Severus, it is not the child's location" Dumbledore said searching within the black eyes, the soul of Snape. "What worries me, are the reasons for your actions... are you worried about the child because of a prophesy?... or are you worried because the child represents the broken bond with your sister?" The Head master as in cue threw Floo powder into his fireplace. "Rodello Drive, Sunnydale California"

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Buffy stood alone in the street. _Have you tried not being a slayer? _The voice of her mom sounded in her head. She had tried. She had cried, begged, refused to act, quit. But nothing had worked. She was the slayer, and she had to get over the idea of leaving the job, leaving her destiny behind. Once a slayer, always a slayer. She was in Los Angeles and trouble -as usual- seemed to be right behind her all the time. She had been fired from her job because she had arrived late. She had been late because she had found a couple of vampires in the dinner's back alley. Now she had almost no money for food. And much less for the rent. 

She was tired. She wanted to jump into her bed badly. She wanted to be able to call Willow and chat about boys like they used to. Hell! she would have been happy to go to school. But what she wanted the most was for her mom to find her, to tell her everything would be ok. To hug her and take the weight from her shoulders. To make her a hot cup of chocolate and sit with her in the kitchen to chat about something apparently meaningless. She wanted her mom to appear in front of her, and to tell her she had been wrong. Then her mom would ask her to come home. And Buffy in response would promise to be better, to study harder, to stop being a slayer.

But she couldn't. She couldn't give her back to the innocent people that would die because of her inefficacy. She wanted it badly. To quit, to be normal for once. But her desires had never matched with the destiny she was supposed to follow.

Buffy stood alone in the street. Her eyes filled with sadness. She had lost everything in a day. Her family, her friends, her future... and Angel. She stood there motionless. She would have made a perfect moving statue –like those that like to stand in public places- her chest only moved for an occasional breath. Then slowly but strongly her chest started moving faster and faster, her sobs echoed in the dirtied walls. And anyone who would have passed by, would have felt incredibly sorry for this girl who cried as if her soul had been torn apart.

"Buffy?" A sweet soothing voice made her heart stop for a second, she turned quickly and insecure, her eyes filled with dropping tears. And there she stood, the person Buffy had being longing the most to see. Some other tears left her eyes and quickly her whole sobbing body was held by her mother's embrace. Joyce held her daughter delicately. Brushing softly and comfortingly Buffy's hair. "I'm sorry" she whispered softly. "I didn't mean it" Buffy couldn't respond. "Please come back" Her mother continued whispering.

"I'm so sorry mom" Buffy managed to say between sobs. It was as if now she was being held by her mother's secure arms, all the late facts of her life had finally reached her. Her tears were not only for her mother, but for everything she had messed up and couldn't fix.

"I don't mean to break this touching moment, but I think this isn't the place or the time" A man -Buffy hadn't noticed standing so near them- said with a kind tone. He had long silvery hair, a beard that was cut up at the same length as his hair. His clothes were the thing that kept the longest Buffy's attention. He was wearing robes: dark blue robes, with small yellow or golden –she couldn't tell by the light- details. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of silvery looking glasses.

"I-I" Buffy didn't know how to react, she felt foolish. If he had been a vampire they would have been dead. She stood in front of her mother protectively. She evaluated the man, but before she concluded her perception she felt her mother's hand touching her shoulder. Her mother pushed her forward.

"Buffy I'd like you to meet Albus Dumbledore" Joyce said seriously, now standing side by side of her daughter.

"Joyce dear, we will have time to meet after" The man said quickly after giving a smile to Buffy. "I'm afraid Voldemort already has the information he needed"

"What-"

"I will explain later" Joyce silenced quickly. Buffy took several steps away from her mother.

"Who are you?" She asked to her mother. Her mother looked back with confusion.

"Buffy, we don't have time for this" Joyce hurried approaching her daughter.

"Let her Joyce, it's better this way" Dumbledore said still standing alert. "It is good to know your Watcher taught you not trust anyone, no matter what they might look like" The man said with a saddened smile. Buffy noticed her mother's eyes turning quickly to stare at Dumbledore's. Buffy had noticed grief in her mother's eyes. Sadness, Regret... who was this man? What did he mean by what he said?

"How did you find me?" Buffy asked Joyce suspiciously, leaving behind her previous questions.

"Albus has a very special instrument, it takes us where our heart longs us to go" Joyce explained staring directly into Buffy's eyes. Buffy didn't flinch. Her mind was working quicker than before. Now there were too many things that did not seem natural.

"If you expect me to buy that... then-"

"When you were five we used to have a small cat..." Joyce said. "..Hank named it Ginger because of it's color, but what he didn't know is that we had already named him" Joyce continued. "We named it Cin, for cinnamon... you had learned the word recently and you wanted the cat named like that" Joyce said smiling at her daughter. "I believe almost every little thing you had was named Cinnamon"

"We never made dad call him that did we?" Buffy asked lost in thought. Her eyes turned and studied her mother's facial expressions.

"Never, Hank is the most stubborn creature I'd ever met" Joyce replied with a smile of her own.

"That's because you have never met the goblins, interesting yet very stubborn creatures" Albus said as he stepped towards them. Buffy's attention turned to Joyce once again.

"I have one last question" Buffy said, Joyce nodded. "How did the cat die?"

"It didn't, we gave it away to our neighbor when we came to Sunnydale" Joyce answered. Buffy nodded and approached. Her mother touched gently her back.

"I'm sorry" Buffy muttered.

"It is alright to mistrust" Dumbledore said with a wise smile behind his beard. "I believe it is safer" He said pulling out a pencil from inside his robes. He pulled a long stick "Portus" He muttered and the pencil glowed for a second. "This is a port-key, you need to touch it to be transported to another place" Buffy looked uncertain at the pencil. Her logic not trusting the man's explanations. Joyce touched the other end of the pencil as if to show her daughter it would not harm her. Buffy touched the pencil and the world as she knew it disappeared with her.

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_I hope you guys enjoyed it, any questions? any suggestions? any whatever? ... then review!_


	3. The Half Blood Princess

**DISCLAIMER: **Neither Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me. I only own the plot.

**Author's Note:** Questions? Things that you think weren't completely explained? Review then, and I'll answer as soon as I get the review!

Thanks to those who reviewed (_stasa_; _enchanted light_; _tinkaroo09_; _buffy92_; _Shadow High Angel_; _WittyNinja_; _Mz Mischief_), and those who read the story.

Now let's continue...

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**THE TRUTH WITHIN**

By: Anne79

Chapter II

_The Half Blood Princess_

_What the-_ was the first thing that came through Buffy's mind, as the pencil Dumbledore held seemed to have created an orb around it, making her and the others twirl around it quickly. But before she could jump into any other conclusion, they arrived to their destination. Dropping in a rather shameful way, Buffy touched the ground once again. She jumped up quickly. She was in no place she recognized.

"Woof, I had forgotten the agitation of a port-key" Her mother said standing from the ground without help. She arranged her clothes and hair and turned to Buffy smiling widely.

"Where-"

"Buffy we are in England" Her mother announced.

"What?" Buffy let out surprised, her eyebrows frowned. "England?"

"Yes, London to be exact" The man –Dumbledore- had said, his eyes twinkling brightly.

"We are at the other side of the pond?" Buffy wondered confused. "We touched that thing, and now we are at the other side of the pond?" She reformed.

"Yes, Buffy there are so many things I haven't told you" Joyce said, her mouth dropping the smile, her face turning serious.

"Oh no?" The slayer replied sarcastically. "I thought we were going back home" The slayer added sternly.

"We are home" Joyce said. "The thing is, you never got to meet it"

"Mom, take me home _now"_ Buffy repeated slowly. "And by home, I mean Sunnydale"

"We can't go back Buffy, it's too dangerous" Joyce said looking at her daughter with the same amount of seriousness her daughter showed. She forgot to add 'because of you'. She couldn't make herself throw that to Buffy, no matter how strong she was, no matter if she was the slayer. Her daughter, her baby girl, did not need to learn that because of her half of Joyce's life had been at the run.

"Mom, I can deal with danger" Buffy said with a strong confident voice. Her eyes turned to her mother, and then she looked at Dumbledore, she wasn't sure how much she could reveal.

"I'm afraid your mother is right Buffy, it is too dangerous to go back to Sunnydale... even for a slayer" Dumbledore said as if answering the thoughts of the slayer. "You will not understand until we explain you our particular situation..." He looked at Joyce as if handing her the word.

"I'm not quite sure how to explain this... it might sound impossible" Joyce said.

They were in a large room. There were no open windows; all were covered with long dark red curtains. Buffy felt the decoration would have pleased any vampire. The furniture was all in dark luscious looking wood. There was a long table in the middle with high chairs around it –there were about 20-. There were some empty portraits hanging from the walls one big mirror over the gigantic fireplace, and one golden chandelier hanging in the middle of the chamber's roof. Buffy had never been in a place that looked this expensive.

Joyce had decided to sit; she waited for Buffy to sit also. Dumbledore seemed to have taken interest in the mirror over the fireplace. He touched the frame as if studying it. Buffy stared at her mother for some seconds and then she decided to sit besides her. Buffy didn't understand anything that was happening; she couldn't understand this change of her evening plans. Was it still evening anyways? She didn't think so.

"I am a witch Buffy" Joyce began after some minutes searching for the right introducing phrase, she had found it. Buffy's eyes looked at her mother, betrayal showing clearly in her eyes. "Let's finish this, and then you can ask whatever you want...everything is not what it seems Buffy" Joyce begged interrupting Buffy who was about to cry out. "I am a witch; I grew up in a world where magic was common. Even though my father did not approve, or even liked magic, my mother insisted in teaching me and-"She stopped herself. "My brother" She continued, looking how Buffy's expression looked at her disappointed. "Severus and I, we grew up with the idea of going to Hogwarts... Hogwarts is the best magical school there is..."

"Oh, I wouldn't say so..." Dumbledore said turning to watch mother and daughter his mouth showing a smile.

"Albus is the headmaster of Hogwarts" Joyce explained. "Severus and I, we are twins... not at all identical" She said this with a smirk. "People used to say one of us was adopted, Severus insisted it was me" Joyce said smiling, but her smile froze as if a thought had invaded her mind. "When we turned eleven, we received the invitation to assist to Hogwarts; we couldn't have been more excited"

"The people will start arriving in an hour or so, I will leave you two alone for a moment" Dumbledore interrupted. "I will announce our presence before they think we are under attack" He smiled, he left.

"I believe that's when trouble started to separate us, you see in Hogwarts students are divided into four different houses... There are Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin" She said. "My family had been Slytherin's for who knows how long, I didn't get into Slytherin, but into Ravenclaw... all I got was a horrible reaction, it would have been worse if I had gotten into Gryffindor" She did not explain further. "My brother and I had different schedules, we saw each other in some classes, but at the end, our groups of friends weren't the sam... well we had one friend in common: her name was Lily Evans, she was in Gryffindor. She was the first friend Severus ever had -besides me- and he fancied her, though he noticed it not until after it was too late to gain her love...

"At the time in the magical world, we were living the approach of a War, there was a Dark Wizard who wanted to eliminate those who weren't purely bred... because that was what he wanted, wizard breeding... My brother then started hanging with a very undesirable group of Slytherins, who leant towards the eradication of the Muggle-born" She noticed Buffy's confused stare. "Muggle is the one who cannot perform magic, there are wizards who come from Muggles... they can demonstrate the same quantity of magic as any child of pureblood wizards

"Severus let himself be seduced by the power held by this ... wizard" Buffy noticed a shiver traveling through her mother. "He joined the group... I couldn't bring reason into him... I was worried Buffy. Everyday we heard of people dying, families broken apart like mine, people going into hiding.

"At first I fought, I joined the group who fought against the injustice, The Order of the Phoenix, the group of Dumbledore, he is the best wizard there is... the only person Voldemort –the self named Dark Lord- fears. But when you see the pain inflicted to those you love, hope starts to turn off..." Joyce had chosen to look at her hands, now held by Buffy's. "... I left, I did not announce this to anyone but Dumbledore... and I left. I abandoned my friends, of whom there were only a couple left... and I went to the States... I met Hank and I had you...

"The Dark Lord lasted some other months, and then he fell... He was defeated by a baby, Harry Potter, the son of my friend Lily Evans... she had sacrificed herself out of love for her only child, and Harry had survived. But I knew it wouldn't end up like that, Voldemort wasn't human enough to die that easily... and I was right... 14 years after his disappearance he became once again corporeal. He is back in full power now" Joyce seemed to have ended her story. They stayed in silence for some minutes.

"The letter... you made me sign a letter when I was little" Buffy said out of the blue, Joyce looked into her eyes. "You made me reject my place in Hogwarts"

"Yes, it wasn't safe Buffy" Joyce replied quickly.

"If it wasn't safe then when he wasn't even corporeal, why return now?" Buffy asked suspicious of the lacking facts of the story. She knew too well her mother, she saw her mother's eyes wandering and leaving her eyes in some moments. Joyce was hiding something.

"I- I was a big asset in the Order, the years have passed and the members are less... they need my support" Joyce said her voice growing more confident of her words as they left her mouth. "... Before I was afraid for you, you were just a child... but now, you have grown Buffy, you are not a child anymore, not even if I insist in seeing you as such"

"But... if you are a witch, I'm a witch too?" Buffy wondered.

"Yes, I'm sure" Joyce replied with a smile.

"But if I didn't go to any magical school or stuff... am I still a witch?" Buffy asked.

"Of course, it doesn't fade away...you just need to be trained" Joyce said, she felt content her daughter had accepted everything so easily. What she didn't know is that Buffy hadn't accepted easily, Buffy knew her mother was hiding things from her, important things. She had not missed when Dumbledore had mentioned Voldemort and some information he had, back at Los Angeles. Now she knew who Voldemort was. She didn't understand how if her mother was only another 'asset' to the 'Order' then why was Sunnydale dangerous for her? And now that she thought of Sunnydale, she hadn't been able to say goodbye to her friends, to Giles. What would happen to her training as a slayer? She was about to ask when the doors opened unannounced.

Three men entered into the room, without counting Dumbledore who went inside after them. Two of them focused particularly in her mother. With similar features but with different results, these two man had both black hair kept longer than their ears. Both needed a sun bath urgently. But their eyes disagreed, one held dark almost black eyes; the other held dark gray ones. Buffy noticed the one who was dressed entirely in black matching his dark black eyes, stayed frozen behind. The two other men –the gray eyed and another one who looked misleadingly wrinkly, like someone who had been through too much in a short time, with a kind look in his brown eyes- advanced quickly. The second man hugged Joyce shortly and whispered something in her ear. Something that sounded like 'I never thought I would see you again'. The other hugged her for a longer period, and then he stood back and watched her entirely as if Buffy's mother was a vision about to fade away.

"You have changed" The man concluded. The stare Joyce and he shared were indefinable. They seemed to be caught in a moment where they were the only ones in the room.

"It's the hair" Buffy said bringing the attention to her. "I've seen some pictures, now she has what we call mom hair" She babbled quickly throwing a dazzling smile to her mother.

"I'm sorry Buffy" Joyce apologized herself; she had been observing the men in front of her in such way, that she seemed to be hypnotized by the sight. "This are two great friends of mine" She explained with a long grin Buffy had never seen in her mother, she showed such happiness. "Remus Lupin" She pointed at the sandy haired, brown eyed man. "Sirius Black" She said giving a long look to the gray eyed man. "This is my daughter, Buffy"

"Nice to meet you" Buffy said politely. "Don't tell me this is the whole Order... if it is, I'm sorry to tell you but you guys have big issues" She said smirking a bit, breaking the tension in the room. Sirius grinned widely, revealing handsome features. Lupin smiled and stared at Buffy with intrigue in his eyes. The man, who stood behind, forgotten in the door frame, finally stepped forward. His eyes glancing at Joyce and Buffy. "Buffy" Buffy introduced giving out a hand to shake. The man stared with new interest at her, his eyes softened as he had seen something he hadn't before. He shook Buffy's hand but said nothing; he returned his stare to Joyce.

"This is Severus" Joyce muttered her eyes dropping, her mood falling considerably. "My brother"

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Troubles in Paradise coming soon...

Review!


	4. The First One

**DISCLAIMER: **Neither Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me. I only own the plot.

**Author's Note:**

I would like to explain better the Time-Line. We are in fact moving backwards the Buffy-verse. I got all confused before, with the 17 and the 18, but I was wrong. Actually, we will make Buffy and her whole universe a year younger. So, to locate us better and faster think like this, Buffy didn't sleep with Angel at her 17th birthday, she had 16 (she didn't necessarily sleep with him at her birthday). The big 'why?' of this will be given later! For the sake of the plot!

And also answering to '**wingnuttia**' for the pairings. I highly doubt this will be a Buffy/Angel thing. I think it would be too complicated. The plot's already complicated without adding Angel into the equation. If you have any ideas or suggestions about the pairings, you can always suggest. But please do suggest _possible_ pairings, nothing like Buffy/Giles.

And then about the Scoobies showing up (**Stasa,** **Samwelshdragon** and **guest** asked about them) ... I can't really promise anything.

And to **guest**, I meant '_donate_'. It really doesn't change the plot. But I did change the word 'quitted'. Thank you for noticing it! Any other mistake, please review me to correct it. And about the Council's HQ... mmm I don't think she'll be going there any time soon.

Thanks a lot for the reviews! Special thanks to: _Shadow High Angel; wingnuttia; lexi; enchanted light; stasa; Samwelshdragon; jamjar666; guest; Supernatural GilmoreGirls; Demongirl024._

Thank you for reading.

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**THE TRUTH WITHIN**

By: Anne79

Chapter III

_The first one_

"But I thought he was with the other crew?" Buffy muttered.

"I was," Severus said directing his words for the very first time to Buffy.

"So now you are with _this_ little group?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, I communicate the information I gather within Voldemort's circle to Dumbledore and the Order," He muttered. But to Buffy, the answers he was giving to her questions didn't seem to be directed to her, but they seemed to be the excuses _uncle Severus_ wanted to give to her mother; even though her _uncle_ chose to stare at her rather than her mother. "Hello Joy," Severus said staring into his sister's eyes for the first time.

"Severus," Joyce replied evenly. Tension was obvious. For Buffy could see Severus presence was tolerated only by Dumbledore. She noticed how Sirius and Remus –more Sirius than Remus- stayed at a diplomatic distance from Severus. Buffy's mother refused to meet his eyes once again. So Buffy had to intervene.

"Sorry to interrupt this warming experience, but is this _really_ the whole order?" She asked to Dumbledore, the rest fell out of their trance.

"We would be rather doomed if we were only four," Severus replied harshly. "Even with Dumbledore at our side, Voldemort wouldn't take long to destroy us all," He elaborated regretting his first tone trying to adopt a softer one.

"That's peachy," Buffy muttered as the room fell in silence once again. Dumbledore seemed to refuse speaking, as if he wished for the other adults to confront their problems and get over them.

"There are some other members of the Order in this house," Remus answered at last. "With time you will meet the members properly, if your mother wants you to joi-"

"Buffy will not join the Order," Joyce interrupted severely. For the first time Buffy could see a resemblance between the twins. "I made that clear when I agreed to take the help you'd offered" She said to Dumbledore.

"Why not?" Buffy asked angrily. "I am the sl-"

"You are an untrained witch, you would be dead if you were to face a fully trained wizard," Joyce interrupted giving her a stare.

"Then train me!"

"I actually believe that to be a comforting idea," Dumbledore said at last gaining the shocked glance of Joyce. "Buffy will be in the middle of a war, we do not know what she might have to face..."

"She could come to Hogwarts," Severus offered.

"And do what?" Joyce snapped. "She can't catch up seven years in one, it is not possible."

"Hey! I resent that!" Buffy whined glaring slightly at her mother. "I might not be the brightest apple of the-"

"But Joy, if Buffy were to-"

"Buffy's not going to face anything!" Joyce snapped at Remus. "We came here for protection; if you can't ensure it then we should better leave."

"Like you would stand a chance if you left this doors... you didn't only contact us to_ find _your daughter but also for protection," Severus said sternly. Buffy stared at both adults interested, the information she wanted -the one her mother refused to give her- was about to pop out. "You two are in dan-"

"Maybe we could train her here?" Sirius proposed, finally meddling into the discussion. "And then we'll see from there where we want to continue."

"I agree," Severus said, his voice showed as if these words had come out forced.

"Alright," Joyce said at last her voice sounding as forced as her brother's.

"It is settled then," Dumbledore said sealing the decision. "I will make sure the arrangements are made," He said. "Buffy?" He called out, reminding the other adults in the room of her presence. "Do you agree?" He asked kindly. "It is after all, your choice." Buffy had stayed in silence for the last couple of commentaries; her hopes of learning magic had been replaced by the worried thoughts of leaving Sunnydale without a slayer.

"I...I'm not sure... I" Buffy bit her lip. "I would like to, but I think I'm needed in Sunnydale...I think I should go back."

"You can't," Severus said before the others.

"Why not? This Voldy guy, he's looking out for members of the Order," Buffy said quickly. "I know I could be used as bait, but mom's the member ok? I doubt he'll go across the world to get _me._"

"He will and he will kill you if he gets a hold of you," Joyce said her face serious. "Buffy you _can't_ go back."

"You can't expect me _not _to go back... don't you understand?" Buffy cried out. "They need _me_, they will be-"

"Did you know you are the first slayer who is also a witch?" Severus cut up suddenly.

"What?" Buffy said at the same time as her mother said...

"Severus," Joyce threatened.

"Do you know how powerful does that make you?" He continued, not paying attention to Joyce's desperate state. "I believe my sister's decision not to train you was foolish, having no proper education does not take your abilities away: it makes you a threat to society."

"...That's why you didn't want me to go to Hogwarts?" Buffy asked softly to her mother, her eyes holding once again disappointment. She stepped away from her mother. "You thought what? ... Were you afraid of me?" Buffy asked with a broken voice. Then her eyes opened wide as if she had realized something. "You_ knew_?" She asked her eyes filling with tears. She noticed how Severus had taken a step closer to her, but Buffy backed away from him also. She stared at all with horror, but specially her mother. "You _knew_ I was a slayer, and still... you kicked me out?" She couldn't hold herself any longer, a torn sob left her small frame painfully. She remembered the other door of the room; she turned quickly and ran for it. She left the room and crossed the hallway quickly, not paying attention to the paintings in the walls. If she had, she would have noticed the moving people in them. She found a stairway, which she climbed quickly. She heard voices near by, so she turned in the opposite direction. She went inside the first door from which she heard no sound coming, she found herself in a dusty room. She sat behind the bed and couldn't control herself any longer. For she started to cry like she hadn't done before. She cried her soul out. She felt betrayed; she felt the worst she had ever felt. Not even loosing Angel, not even dying herself could compare to loosing the 'safe house' family was supposed to be. Knowing that the person you cared for the most, the person who was supposed to protect you, was afraid of you.

She heard steps rushing in all directions across the hallway. Upstairs and downstairs. People moving. She heard a person knocking the door, she couldn't talk. She heard someone entering the room. She knew it was her mother. For a while she had been able to recognize her mother's presence and to distinguish it from the rest.

"I didn't know... "Her mother said. "When you were born a seer told me you would be the first one of your kind..."

"Of my _kind_?" Buffy stuttered out wiping tears from her eyes.

"She did not say any further... I didn't ask her to develop much... I've always been afraid of them... prophesies," Joyce muttered as she went closer to the bed, she sat at the opposite side of the floor. "In this world, slayers are mythological beings... I didn't even consider it as an option."

"Why...why didn't you tell me?" Buffy asked her voice still broken.

"I couldn't even handle it myself...how was I supposed to drop this bomb on your shoulders?" Joyce asked. "When you told me you were the slayer my mind just exploded... I didn't understand anything, I was shocked... I have no excuse for what I did Buffy."

"Am I forced to stay?" Buffy asked after several minutes of silence.

"No, Dumbledore would never force you," Her mother answered.

"But you would..."

"I... I don't want you to go... _He_ knows about you, he must know you are active... he will want you on his side Buffy, no matter the cost," Joyce whispered. "I can't loose you..."

"But what about my responsibilities?"

"Albus is on it, we believe there's someone inside the council who has been providing information to Voldemort," Joyce answered seriously, but once again Buffy saw her mother was keeping something out. "But you need to explain us Buffy... explain _me_ ...how did you know the slayer before you... they are -_you_ are- supposed to keep your identities a secret."

"She did not precede me," Buffy muttered her eyes in her lap. She had never thought she would arrive to this, to finally tell her mother the whole truth about the slayer deal. She had imagined it much different. But it seemed she had been taken from one world to another, from one threat to another.

"What do you mean by that?" Joyce asked her eyes digging into her daughter's frame. "I know there can't be two slayers at the same time... at least that's what they told us in the children's stories."

"Mom... I died," Buffy whispered her eyes tearful once again as she stared right in the eye at her mother.

"You what?" Joyce stuttered out. Air had seemed to leave her body to never come back. She felt empty. Millions of ideas coming through her head. What did Buffy mean by that _she died_? How? When? But most important, why hadn't she told her? Why hadn't Buffy come to her for help?

There was a knock in the door. The door opened after some seconds waiting for an answer that never came. Albus entered. "You found her," he said to Joyce, but both women already knew this was no news for him.

"Yes," Joyce whispered softly. "Albus I need some-"

"Actually, I wanted to ask Buffy if she wouldn't mind sharing her experiences as a slayer with a minority of the Order," He asked staring at the blonde. "We could find a way to help with her responsibilities by knowing at which type of danger she is exposed..."

"I-.. "

"Wouldn't it be better if she spoke to me first?" Joyce asked, still struggling with the information Buffy had given her.

"I think sometimes it is better to relive things once only... "Dumbledore continued softly.

"Couldn't it be just you and mom...?" Buffy asked with a whisper.

"Yes I believe it could," Dumbledore answered giving her a small smile. "But first, I think the rest of the House and its inhabitants would be pleased to be introduced to you."

"I..."

"You must be hungry after all... and probably tired," Dumbledore continued, he walked towards Joyce and helped her to stand. Buffy gave the old wizard a suspicious glance, and then she proceeded to stand up by a little jump. "Well, maybe not tired," The wizard added with the particular twinkle of his blue eyes. "This way," He led, he opened the door completely and he let the women pass before him gallantly.

Buffy took a second look at the house, everything looked so old. The hallways looked freshly painted though; they were clean contrary to the room she had hidden herself in. The paint in the walls tried to hide miserably the wall's old dark colors. As she walked closer to where she supposed she was being taken, the walls in the corridors seemed to be better painted. So she assumed they were going to the part of the house that was the most used. The light, softer colors covered the former dark walls. She noticed the portraits in the walls were less also as she went closer to her destine. Dumbledore lead her down some other stairs, different from those she had climbed upstairs. And he stopped in front of a double door. He opened it and stayed behind letting the women pass before him. As they did so, chairs were heard as they moved, because all of the dinning room's inhabitants had turned to stare at both women.

"Good Evening Albus," A woman with bright abundant red hair said breaking the tension in the air. "Remus and Sirius told us you had arrived with our newest guests," She smiled brightly at the Summer's – or Snape- women. She made her way to both of them and planted kisses in both cheeks of both women. "I'm Molly Weasley dear," She introduced to Buffy. She assumed her mother already knew the Mrs. Weasley. "The red heads are my children: there's Ginny," She said pointing at the only red headed girl at the table. "The twins are Fred and George... I don't encourage you to try to find who's who," She added with a smile when both twins seemed to be about to speak. "Then there's Ronald," She pointed at a blushing boy. "Bill might come later... he's my oldest" She announced proudly. "Charlie I'm afra-"

"Molly dearest, don't monopolize the introductions," A red headed man said coming from what Buffy presumed would be the kitchens. "I'm Arthur Weasley," He said pointing at himself. He wore a hat Buffy found funny. She grinned already liking the Weasley family.

"Well you know Remus and Sirius..." Molly said not paying notice to her husband. "Next to Remus is Nymphadora," The girl next to Remus glared shortly at no one. "She prefers to be called Tonks," Molly added in a whisper. Buffy giggled. Joyce found Buffy's laughter like music to her ears. After seeing her so affected by the information she had learnt, Joyce had felt guilty for her daughter's not so well-being. She noticed Molly had continued the introductions, and then she noticed the boy who sat next to Molly's son, Ronald. His appearance revealed his identity. He was James. He was exactly how James looked when he was at school; the boy looked exactly how she remembered James. Maybe without the careless looking quality James always showed in his behavior, and well without James' hazel eyes... his eyes were Lily's. There was no doubt who he was. Harry Potter couldn't be able to deny he was James Potter's and Lily Evans' son.

"...Granger and next to Ronald is Harry Potter, the three of them attend to Hogwarts -they are in their seventh and final year- Ginny's at Hogwarts too but she's in her sixth year..." Molly finished smiling the same. Buffy had nodded and waved a couple of times. They seemed to be a likable crowd. Then she noticed the Harry fellow seemed to stare at her mother as if she had something on her front. Buffy checked her mother's front just in case.

"Well, a couple of you already know Joy but for those who don't... this is Joy Snape," He said pointing at Joyce.

"_Summers_, Joy Summers," Joyce added at the end. The younger crowd who was not familiar of Joyce all looked at her differently after the last name had escaped Dumbledore's lips. The same thought had passed through their minds: _But she looked so nice, how could she be a Snape?_

"Joy?" Buffy muttered, her mother heard her and turned. Her eyes told her she would explain it later.

"She and her daughter have come to help us.. Joy's daughter.." He pointed at Buffy. "Buffy _Summers,_" He said smiling. "She did not receive proper training when she lived in the United States... we have offered her to train her properly while she stays here if she decides to stay," Dumbledore concluded winking quickly at Buffy. "Now we can eat in peace," He added.

Buffy then felt her stomach growling. She had not eaten since the morning, US time. She sat next to her mother, next to the woman named Tonks. Her mother was next to her own brother. She noticed how half of the table from time to time as they stared in her uncle's direction seemed to glare as a reflex.

"Could you pass me the potatoes?" Tonks asked while chewing something. Buffy smiled and passed it. "Thank' 'ou," Tonks said serving herself and swallowing. "Do you want to see something wicked?"

"No thank you, I prefer wickedness to stay in its closet," Buffy muttered.

"Something –what do American kids say these days? Oh yeah!- Something _cool_ I mean," Tonks translated quickly before biting a piece of chicken very unlady like. Buffy grinned.

"Sure," When Buffy said this she noticed Tonks' former pink head started turning blue, its tips changing violently to yellow, then green to normal brown. But also it didn't not only change its colors but also its shape and its length. "That is cool," Buffy said surprised, her eyes open wide.

"I can change everything," Tonks explained.

"All wizard-"

"Nah, only metamorphmagus," Tonks replied beaming because of Buffy's reaction.

"That could save loads of money," Buffy said grinning.

"Yup," Tonks took another bite. "So you never knew a metamorphmagus back at the US?"

"I never knew _wizards_ back at the US," Buffy corrected as she focused on her own plate. She was starving.

"You didn't know wizards _at all_?!" One of the red heads –Ronald, Buffy thought- cried astonished letting Buffy see for a short second his mouth's contents. Not a pretty sight.

"_Ron,_" The girl besides him said as she elbowed him. "She knew _her mother_, obviously she knew someone."

"I knew my mom alright, but I didn't know she was a witch," Buffy explained after swallowing.

"You didn't know she was a witch?" The boy at the other side of Ronald, asked. Buffy nodded. "She didn't do any magic while you grew up?" Buffy was trying hard to remember the boy's name, even if he had been the one who had stared at her mother for a strange amount of time. She had to recognize that boy had something appealing.

"If she did, I didn't notice," Buffy answered.

"And your dad, was he a wizard too?" Hermione asked.

"Of course he was! her mother is Snape's-" Both sides of Ronald were hit by his friends' elbows.

"I'm not quite sure... my parents… they are divorced, I haven't seen my dad in a while," Buffy muttered dropping her gaze conveniently to the smashed potatoes near her. She served her second portion of it. She noticed her mother hadn't seemed to have heard the question, or the answer. She didn't bother to inquire about Ron's sudden outburst; she was starting to get tired of not understanding the ways of wizards, but most of all of not understanding the real reason of her being at the other side of the world, so far from what she called home.

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Please review to share your thoughts. 


	5. The many lies of the slayer

**DISCLAIMER: **Neither Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me. I only own the plot.

**Thanks to: **_**stasa**__**Mz Mischief**_I like having Joyce as a leading character for once_**enchanted light; Shadow High Angel**_I think Buffy should be special, if she isn't then there's no point in making collide both worlds! Lol thank you) _**cRiMsOmGoDeSs01**__**Macala Armstrong**_ _**Silent Me; buffy92.**_

About the pairings I can't really tell you just yet. It's not that I don't know, it's just that... I love surprises. Lol. Also the big "why was Harry staring at Joyce?" will be developed with the story. Thanks for your wonderful reviews!

_**I changed a few details of this chapter. That's why I deleted the first version. I made some mistakes in the story line. Feel free to re-read.**_

**Author's Note:**

In order to make this chapter, I informed myself of the details of Buffy Summers' life. I decided I would stick only to the television series. Because otherwise, it would be way too complicated to explain every little detail, especially because I have never seen the movie, I've only seen the television series.

Also I would like to say that the information revealed in Season Six in the "Normal Again" episode, in which it is revealed that Buffy told her parents before moving to Sunnydale she was the slayer, but they didn't believe her and they got her into a mental institution? Remember that? Well I will eliminate that little fact out of my little universe. Because I don't think Joyce would have let that pass if she was a witch and yaddy yaddy yadda!

If this makes you confused, you can always review with a question.

Prepare yourselves for a heavy chapter.

* * *

**THE TRUTH WITHIN**

By: Anne79

Chapter IV

_The many lies of the slayer_

Dumbledore had let Buffy sleep before asking her once again to tell him her story. The next day, after the household had taken its normal routine and everybody was submerged into their own business, Dumbledore asked Buffy and Joyce apart. He had leaded them into a small but comfy chamber; he had explained the whole house was under several make-over. Apparently the chamber -in which they were in- had been recently changed into what it was now. The chamber's decoration did not agree to what Buffy had seen in the dusted rooms, and even into some of the clean looking rooms she had been in. This one was so full of light she had had to cover her eyes when she entered. The rooms' windows were wide open, with no curtains covering them. The furniture was kept at minimum, dark wood replaced by a light one. The walls did not go farther than different shades of whites or pastel colors, maybe one or two bright dark color.

"How was your sleep?" Dumbledore asked, as he made a sign for Joyce to sit. Buffy sat in the individual couch in front of both adults.

"Fine," Buffy muttered.

"Before you begin your story Buffy, I would like to –with the help of your mother- explain you how the slayers are seen in our world... and what information do we hold from the slayers' life style," Dumbledore said breaking the awkwardness of the silent room.

"Mom already told me we are seen as myths," Buffy muttered.

"Yes indeed," Dumbledore confirmed smiling. "I believe the origins of the legends came from France, where the slayer lived some centuries ago. This young woman had been discovered by some foreign wizards who wanted to take her away from her town to submit her into their wills... they did not know from where the slayer's strength came, so they wanted to study her power's origins". Buffy rolled her eyes. She thought this was probably the _origin_ of watchers also, men wanting to control and study the slayers. Now that Buffy came to think about it, she didn't quite know how they had been made. She remembered Giles blabbering about something she couldn't quite put her finger on. "The slayer escaped and isolated herself, away from civilization. Then to make people stay away from her, she attacked from time to time the towns near her territories," He stopped suddenly and the baffled expression held by Buffy. "Let me rectify myself: she made them _believe_ she was attacking them, but in fact she attacked only the vampires who had infiltrated into the villages.

"The wizards however had taken notice of this, they made some diaries that held some information of which were certain facts they knew about the slayer's life. But like so many historical evidence they were lost with time." At this the old wizard's eyes twinkled, giving Buffy the idea that maybe this documents hadn't been completely lost and maybe that's where he had gotten so much information about the slayer deal. "This was probably better for you and every girl of your kind... But still, the Wizards' Community had started to pass the rumor about a woman possessed by a beast who killed children, women or men who crossed her path. To explain the continuation of the slayer's line they said that the beast possessed one woman at the time, and only when the woman's body died, the beast possessed another one. It was quite used to scare small children at night, to prevent them from going out, because the night was the time for her to lure and attack. And also to scare young women from breaking the law... it was said the slayer's beast went only from unholy women," Buffy had to snort at this. It was unbelievable how mankind could twist information to transform it in something useful.

"The rumors grew with the years, some so ridiculous that at the end they convinced the majority into believing there had never been a fact holding the myth," Dumbledore continued. "I, myself, never gave much thought to this. Until I met someone who woke up my interest," He made a –dramatic, Buffy thought- pause. "I met the slayer and her watcher, they had been in trouble –they had accidentally walked in a nest-. And apparently when I met Loraine and Marcus, she had two months being a slayer. I helped them get on their feet –" Buffy knew this was a metaphor, probably he had done some Hocus Pocus, giving some time to the slayerette to get ready to attack. "- and the girl finished off the remaining vampires.

"She spoke not a word of English -I believe she was from Germany-. She and her watcher explained me who they were, after the fight; it seemed that the watcher –at least- had heard from wizards. He was quite a curious man, we exchanged some information and then we parted different ways... not without giving ourselves a way to communicate in case of need."

"In case of need?" Buffy asked finally breaking the tale with one of her many questions.

"We were at the verge of a war... we both understood the other side could be of help, especially for them having such a young slayer," Dumbledore explained quickly before resuming his story. "He explained me of the Council, he told me bits of how it was organized, he confirmed the rumors of the slayer's uniqueness, there can only be one slayer at the time," Buffy gave an uneasy look at both adults. "I know little from what their lives must be, but I at least had the certainty of the slayer's existence. I did not dare though to bring further investigations into the matter... I knew –us, wizards- we can be too curious for our own good," He looked at Buffy. "Now Buffy, I told your mother about the Council and the watchers when she told me you were the slayer. I must say I was surprised by this. I had asked Marcus a long time ago if there had been any slayers or potentials who happened to be witches. He had told me he thought of this impossible; there had never been any record of a slayer who manifested any supernatural powers –his words not mine- for even a slayer"

"Giles never mentioned anything.." Buffy muttered.

"Mr. Giles?" Joyce asked her brow frowning. "Mr. Giles, the librarian... he was your watcher?"

"He _is _my watcher," Buffy corrected. "He must be so worried... " Buffy whispered to herself biting her lower lip. "Could I call him?"

"I believe that would be very difficult here, due we don't have any _electricity_ –I believe that's the word?- much less a telephone," Dumbledore answered. "However, I could let you get a hold of another communication media."

"What would that be?" Buffy asked. "Post mail?"

"Yes, I believe post mail would be a more effectible way of communicating" Dumbledore said nodding. "We could use our connections in the American Ministry; to be sure it will arrive. I've heard dreadful things of the British Mail; I think the same rules apply in America."

"I... Can't I go for a walk... outside I mean? I could get a hold of a cabin booth" Buffy said standing up. "I mean London is kind of known for that isn't it?" She gave a small sided smile.

"Buffy... " Joyce said after a sigh, standing up after Dumbledore. "You would be putting yourself out there, to an –"

"Mom, I know it's dangerous... I understand" Buffy said her voice getting edgier by the second. "But I _think_ if I'm **obliged** to tell _my_ watcher that, I am never going to see him for a long period, then _**I think**_ it would be best if I could at least _say_ this, not that he gets a freaking letter" She saw her mother's worried face, and the change of Dumbledore, which now held some sort of sadness she could not comprehend.

"Your watcher might not be alive Ms. Summers," Dumbledore said, dropping one of the heavy bombs he kept under his sleeves. "We haven't been able to contact him."

"What?" Buffy asked with a whisper. "What do you mean by _we_ haven't been able to contact him?" She hissed angrily. "For how long has he been missing?"

"Two days," Joyce answered. "Two days ago, I contacted Albus, because I couldn't find you," Joyce said her voice barely audible. "Albus explained me you might have a watcher, he asked me if there were any adults you hanged with particularly... I mentioned Ms. Calendar and Mr. Giles"

"Ms. Calendar is dead," Buffy interrupted.

"He asked me to contact them, especially Mr. Giles."

"He fitted the profile," Dumbledore cut in. "All watchers, with few exceptions are British..." He explained shortly.

"Mr. Giles didn't answer his phone... I called Willow and she told me she hadn't heard from him since the day before," Joyce continued. She had sat down again; she rubbed her hands and refused to stare at her daughter. "I told this to Albus, he asked me not to go to his house... he thought –and I agreed- maybe Voldemort already knew you were the slayer... or maybe he knew Mr. Giles was the watcher of the current slayer... and he had gone for him first."

"He's dead?" Buffy asked, her voice echoing disbelief.

"We are not sure," Dumbledore continued quietly after he saw Joyce's head was leaning into her hand's palms. "When I went to Sunnydale, we checked his house and we found it empty... his living room was particularly messy... "

"Was there any-"

"There was no trace to follow, no explanation... his belongings were at their places" Dumbledore continued.

"When were you going to tell me this?" Buffy asked her eyes glaring at the wizard. "When?!"

"We thought it would be best to keep it until we knew for certain what had happened to him," Dumbledore answered evenly.

"What about my friends? Willow? Xander?" She asked upset. What if something had happened to all of them? Her greatest fear. At last, it had come to happen. She had been the death of her friends; they were harmed because of –

"We keep watch in their houses, nothing seems to have arrived to them, they are for the moment safe," Dumbledore answered, quickly stopping the thoughts in Buffy's head.

"Do they know?" Dumbledore asked after a few minutes of trance. Buffy's unfocused eyes stared at Dumbledore, confusion showing clearly. "Do they know you are the slayer?" He elaborated. She nodded absently. "Isn't it-"

"Forbidden?" Buffy asked dryly. "I have never been much for rules."

"Would it be appropriate to ask you to tell us your story now?" He asked, with his tone letting her know he did not mind waiting longer. She shrugged.

"I guess ...this will always be a touch-y subject, no matter in which life-threatening situation I'm in," She muttered. She sat next to her mother who still looked guilty. Buffy guessed keeping all the secrets, her mother had guarded for herself, wasn't very good for her either. She felt sorry for her mother. She still felt anger inside of her, but like usual, she let her emotions stay hidden. She didn't want to aggravate her mother's guilty state. She held her mother's hand. With a gesture letting her know she was ready to tell her everything, but she needed her mother's strength and support.

"You don't hav-"

"I want to," Buffy interrupted, her face set. "I became a slayer after I turned fifteen..."

"Then the other girl-?"

"All on its right time Joy…" Dumbledore intervened before Buffy could answer. He made a sign for her to continue.

"One day after cheerleading practice, we were outside and I said goodbye from my friends since they had to go, and I wanted to wait for a guy I was dating. Then a man came close to me and started to tell me that I was the Chosen One, the one who could fight the forces of darkness. So I walked away from him and started walking home. Then another man came to me… At first I thought he was going to ask me for directions, but when he came closer I thought he was a creep or something. So, I walked faster until he caught up with me and he stood in front of me, cutting my way out. The man -who had talked to me before- came out of nowhere and stabbed the other one on the chest," Buffy rubbed her temple. Nobody had said reliving memories was the easiest thing in the world.

"Couldn't we use a –"

"I believe the Pensive would exhaust her," Dumbledore interrupted.

"A Pensive?" Buffy asked looking at Dumbledore.

"It's a basin which holds memories we extract from our minds…"

"Extract?" Buffy mouthed to herself. "Anyways…" She continued. "..When the stabbed man disappeared into dust, the man -who had been following me- threw a big book in my arms. I didn't even have a second to glance at it because he started babbling about me being the slayer, the only girl in the world… and some stupid nonsense of the sort. I just remember pushing him and he was sent across the street…. I didn't understand … maybe if I had paid some attentions to physic I would have been able to make a hypothesis but I just ran away and went back home.

"The man kept insisting: he appeared every time I left from school, or he would catch up with me while I waited for the school's bus. So one day I decided to hear what he had to say... I was scared because he kept talking about demons and vampires and evil creatures coming out in the dark. I thought maybe this was some sort of prank of Sara's. But it wasn't. When I told her, she looked at me as if I had gone nuts. The day I started to believe -that what this man said was true- it was one day a man came to me and his face transformed before me… it just changed. I stayed petrified. He was a vampire. Merrick –the man who had come to me to speak about my destiny- appeared once again out of nowhere and he killed it, but this time he wasn't as lucky as before, because the vampire -in the process- had managed to break his arm. Then I didn't have other choice but to believe.

"Merrick started training me. He explained me more about who I was. He said I was the one girl in the world with supernatural powers able to stop the forces of darkness, I was the slayer. But with the new training sessions I started to forget going to the cheerleading practice. I didn't have time to make all my homework. It was hard.

"Then you guys started fighting," She said looking at Joyce. "At I guess part of it was my fault."

"No Buffy, Hank and I… I don't think -I never did- we were meant to last long together. We started fighting, but I think the subjects we discussed about were only excuses to fight for. We knew what was coming… we just didn't know how to confront it," Joyce explained holding her daughter's hands, and rubbing Buffy's back.

"What happened to Merrick, your first watcher?" Dumbledore asked, resuming the conversation.

".. I started fighting more and more regularly with vampires and some demons… we knew that something big was coming because they seemed to be appearing from every corner of Los Angeles. Then Merrick explained me there was a Master Vampire I had to defeat. His name was Lothos. We killed him; we had to burn down the school's gym to kill him and most of his followers…" She closed her eyes. She still remembered the smell of the smoke, the vampires' cries. The people yelling… "But this brought its consequences: I was expelled… I couldn't really demonstrate there were vampires among us and that I was the vampire slayer. They would have thought I was a mental case and get me into some sort of institution!" She gave a bitter snort. "It's funny." She paused with a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "…everybody in their minds hold the possibility of unnatural things to happen. Most of us believe there are other forms of life in the universe, we believe in small acts of mental connection… like when you know what another one is thinking, or you pick up the phone knowing who's calling you. But we get quite scared when we get proofs of this…" She smiled shortly and saw Dumbledore's eyes softening. Contrary to her teacher's feelings, Joyce felt remorse. Because she had acted like her daughter had said when she had heard Buffy's confession of her situation as a slayer. "And… Merrick died also… Lothos killed him. We moved. I thought being the slayer ended up there. But it didn't. The first day in Sunnydale High, Giles came to me and gave me another book of vampires… he explained me he was my new watcher. I had a hard time going back to the slaying routine. I met Willow and Xander, and they discovered I was the slayer… instead of stepping back they offered their help which at first I didn't want but ... I don't know."

"The charge was diminished by knowing you had someone else to talk to you and to back you up," Dumbledore completed wisely.

"Yes, something of the sort," Buffy agreed with a nod and a smile. "I met Angel also, he was a vampire… We… he helped me sometimes. He had a soul."

"Angel, a vampire with a soul?" Dumbledore inquired.

"Yes, he was known before as Angelus, before he had his soul… he was cursed because he killed the daughter of a gypsy, and they cursed him by giving him a soul that would not let him forget the horrid things he had done," Buffy sighed. "Sunnydale was a very … different town; it had a great quantity of demons and vampires living there. Giles explained me this was because Sunnydale was built over the Mouth of Hell. One of many at least. And the Master -a great and old vampire leader of the Order of Aurelius- wanted to open the mouth of Hell just to make the world a peachier place to live in.

"But there was a catch this time. I mean, we didn't have a clue of how to kill him, or how to avoid the Hell Mouth from being open. But there was also a little detail that ruined things up, even more. My beloved watcher found a prophesy… one that said that the slayer would die in hands of the Master."

"How did you avoid getting killed Buffy?" Dumbledore asked with a sudden new interest. His brow was in a frown as if his mind was working quickly.

"I didn't, I did die," Buffy muttered and she noticed how Dumbledore gave her a different look. "I refused to face the Master at first, and Giles… he was going to try to kill him. But I couldn't let him. I couldn't let him get himself killed for no reason. So I went and faced the Master. Alone. Or at least I thought I was alone."

"A sacrifice," Dumbledore whispered to himself.

"The day of the Earthquake," Buffy heard her mother mumbling.

"I tried to defeat the Master but he managed to knock me out in a pool of water… I drowned" She had carefully over passed the subject and its details, as if it didn't have much importance. "But Xander, he had heard what I was going to do and face. So, he followed me with Angel. He did CPR and I gained consciousness. I was technically dead for some minutes. And the Master had continued with his evil twisted plan, hence I went to the school –because the mouth of hell was under the school's library- and we defeated him. We managed to win."

"Interesting," Dumbledore whispered to himself.

"We went back to normal. But afterwards a group of vampires tried to resuscitate the Master. We stopped them, and I made sure nobody would ever try that again. Also with my death a new vampire slayer had reborn, and she came to Sunnydale totally unaware I was there. Her name was Kendra Young," She sighed and brushed her hair quickly. "She stayed for a while, but then she left. The Hell Mouth is no place to stay quiet for long, before Kendra came, a couple of vampires… Spike and Drusilla -who were formerly known to Angel before he gained his soul-, came into town. They did a lot trying to kill me, or the world depending on their mood of the day."

"Angelus, Spike, Drusilla…" Dumbledore whispered once again before raising his voice a bit to ask Buffy: "Did they happen to be The Scourge of Europe?"

"Yes..." Buffy nodded, surprised. "Angelus, Spike -or William the Bloody-, Drusilla and Darla were known as the Scourge of Europe."

"Interesting acquaintances you have," Dumbledore said. Buffy could not quite read his expression.

"Angel was not dangerous…" Buffy said defensively.

"Your boyfriend _Angel,_ he was a vampire?" Joyce asked finally breaking her silent stupor. As if the defensive tone of Buffy had made something click in her head. Buffy glared at her shortly, not wanting to bring their relationship up to discussion.

"Yes," Buffy hissed, but quickly controlling her emotions. "He lost his soul… " Buffy didn't know how to continue explaining. She saw both adults waited for her to say the reason of this. "He reached a moment of pure happiness, and he lost his soul. Apparently the curse the gypsies had given him had a clause in little letters that said when he reached a moment of pure happiness he would loose, once again, his soul. Long story short, he went evil… I had to stop him because now it was his turn of wanting to open a portal and killing everybody. We tried saving him, we tried returning him his soul. Ms. Calendar was part of the gypsy tribe that had given the curse on the first place. She had been searching for the curse. But before she managed to re-soul him, he killed her. It was so hard on us, specially on Giles. They were dating." The tortures Angelus had made to all of them came to her head. She couldn't continue to add all the horrid things Angelus had done to the story. She didn't dare to. "Drusilla and Spike had joined him. And the tricked me and attacked my friends. Drusilla Kendra-who had returned to give me a sword to stop Angelus from opening the portal-. They had hurt my friends. They had kidnapped Giles, because he knew some information they needed. So I needed to stop him at any cost. Spike, or William the Bloody, he offered me a truce, he didn't want the world to end like Angel. But he wanted to protect Drusilla. He helped me go inside of Angelus' mansion. Spike left with Drusilla. Xander was able to free Giles while I fought Angelus. I fought him, and I won," Buffy said this with her gaze looking down, not being able to tell them the curse had been placed once again and that she had killed Angel. "You asked me to leave before I faced Angelus," Buffy continued, looking at her mother, who showed regret. "I made sure everybody was alright and I went to Los Angeles. That's all… that's my E! True Hollywood Story."

* * *

Before anyone asks about the war that was coming –Dumbledore mentioned it in his long long tale- we talk about the war against Grindelwald and in the muggle community the World War II. 


	6. The facts

**DISCLAIMER: **Neither Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me. I only own the plot.

_Thanks to: stasa, MzMischief and enchantedlight for their encouraging reviews._

**Author's Note:**

Here come the explanations you must have been waiting for the Potter-verse. I know there are some characters who were not supposed to stay alive. But don't you like having them around? Do you really want a world without Sirius? Or without Dumbledore? …. Well I just have to say that the avoided deaths are not "just because" thing, there are solid reasons for them to be alive. They are actually needed for the plot.

Also I want you to understand the attitude I will give to Harry. Remember his godfather is still alive, as well as Dumbledore. The weight of the world isn't full on his shoulders… so I wouldn't like people saying Harry's off character and that he should be exactly how he was in the 7th book. Because I believe with a change of circumstances we have a change of attitude. But don't worry it won't last long.

Now another heavy chapter...

* * *

**THE TRUTH WITHIN**

By: Anne79

Chapter V

_The facts_

He had gone back, and everything at Grimmauld place looked almost the same. He couldn't believe his luck. The Order had appeared at the Dursley's to pick him up almost two weeks before schedule. He couldn't tell if the Dursleys were relieved they wouldn't have to stand him any longer. Or if they were anxious because the Order had come in the middle of the day, and the neighbors could have noticed the robes, the wands, or any weird aspect of the Order's members.

He had wanted to get out of that house for as long as he could remember; but especially since Sirius had been proven not guilty. Peter Pettigrew had been caught last year, after he had stupidly gone into the Ministry looking for information. Peter should have known that even if he went as a rat, there were new methods of security applying into every office of the Ministry. Imagine poor Peter's face when he entered the Ministry in Malfoy's robe pocket as a rat; and he had not even been five seconds in the Ministry and he had transformed back into his human form. Nobody could understand at first. But after all the facts had organized and a small flash of spells going in every direction –and the Minister had been changed once again- the Wizengamot -under Dumbledore's direction- had declared Sirius non guilty. And they had condemned Peter for something, though Dumbledore had failed to tell Harry which had been the punishment.

Sirius refused sometimes to go out of the house. A bit ironic, after he had gotten himself almost killed -a lot of times- because he wanted his freedom back. But Harry knew Sirius didn't like going out now because of the people's reaction. Harry had come to understand people didn't like going through so many changes at once. Having to accept a formerly known killer wasn't really guilty, had come as a hard thing to do for the Magical Community. Sirius had decided to apply his whole time and energy into rearranging Grimmauld's Place. Security measures coming first. They could not afford having Death Eaters coming in and out as they pleased. Even if it wasn't used as the Order's Main Center of meetings as it was before, the Order still came for some meetings. But Sirius explained Harry, he didn't want to fix everything up just for the Order, he wanted to fix all for the future home they could have there. And if all failed, they could always move to the Bahamas.

But still, Dumbledore did explain how Harry couldn't leave the Dursleys to live with Sirius immediately after his godfather was declared off charges. There was the blood's protection spell. Harry had to spend sometime with his relatives to make sure it was still active. But this year would have been the last anyways, after Harry's seventeen birthday, the spell –as if it had a switch- turned off. The Order had taken care of the Dursleys. They had moved them out of the way, placing them in America. Nobody could tell if they were in real danger, and were part of Voldemort's plan.

That was the negative thing that made his life a living hell. Dumbledore had shared this last year so much information about Voldemort, thinking it could help Harry to defeat him. Now Harry had to recover the horcruxes. Of course Dumbledore had said he would help him. But he had noticed Dumbledore looking sicker than ever before. His hand seemed to grow darker by the day. Harry was afraid of this of course, he feared for his Headmaster's death, especially after the near death experience last year of the Headmaster. They had gotten out of the Astronomy Tower, because Malfoy had chickened out and taken the offer of protection Dumbledore had given him. Snape had tried killing Dumbledore. But he had missed and then he had escaped with the rest of the Death Eaters. Little did Harry know at the moment, that this had all been a rehearsed moment. As Snape returned to the Order seriously hurt. Dumbledore explained that in Order to maintain Snape's cover and also to protect young Draco Malfoy –who was into hiding, after his parents' bodies had been found at his house-, Snape had been forced to aim at him. But he noticed the glance the Headmaster had shared with the Potion's Master. There was something that told Harry something was not right. And Dumbledore's behavior supported his theories. Dumbledore shared a lot of information with him these days, but Harry had sometimes perceived Dumbledore looked nostalgic. And sometimes Harry thought Dumbledore was not teaching him how to fight with him, but to fight without him. That when Dumbledore had told him he would help him, he had omitted saying '_for as long as he could'_. Harry feared going to war without Dumbledore. Without leader. He didn't even consider the idea of winning without him.

Harry had continued searching, in his memories and in the books Grimmauld's Place could offer him. He had tried making a list of possible artifacts that could be of use. He was sure Tom Riddle's diary was one; he thought probably Dumbledore already knew this. But he wanted to confirm it with Dumbledore. He had tried making a small list of where could have Voldemort placed his Horcruxes. He felt nervous and tired, because the locations he gathered were little. He could not place the relation between the chamber of secrets, the cave and Gaunt's shack.

He had arrived the day before, not giving this enough time to share his thoughts with Hermione –who would surely make the connection between the places- and Ron. Dumbledore had arrived moments after him, he had told them not to disturb the living room in the second floor. He announced there were two new guests. He had also refused to give any further information on the subject. He did not say a direct word to Harry, not giving him any clue that would show any intention of talking to Harry.

Then Dumbledore had approached Snape –who still looked drained- to tell him something. Dumbledore also said something to Remus and Sirius. Harry had tried asking Sirius about it. But before Harry had reached Sirius; Dumbledore, Snape, Remus and Sirius had gone out the room and Ms. Weasley –as if she knew something Harry didn't- pushed Harry to take a sit. Hermione and Ron appeared soon after. They immersed themselves into conversation with the twins. But Harry kept glancing at the door.

Finally Dumbledore came inside the room with Snape, Sirius and Remus. The whole room's attention turned to stare at the group expectantly. Then two women –more like a woman and a girl of his age- came inside also.

The woman had kept his attention, he didn't even sense the woman's daughter noticing his glances. He had seen that woman before. Even if the photos he had of her were from a long time ago, he still could recognize her. She had been in lots of photos of the album Hagrid had given him on his first year at Hogwarts. He had once asked Sirius about her. But Sirius had just frozen and he had not been able to answer. Remus –who was also present- had answered they went to school with her. Apparently, she had been the maid of honor at his parents' wedding. He suspected she might also have been involved with Sirius. It was the only explanation Hermione had found that seemed logic.

He did not need to hear the woman's name. In some photos she appeared as Joy. But he had been surprised when Dumbledore had announced her as Joy _Snape_. She had corrected Dumbledore quickly, but the damage had been done for the younger crew. As all of those who had passed through Professor Snape's hands at school did not consider giving the kind looking woman another chance.

"So do you reckon she's like his cousin?" Ron muttered that night when they changed into their sleeping clothes.

"I don't know, she doesn't look a lot like him," Harry said as he jumped in his bed. They heard a knock on the door. Hermione did not wait for an answer as she entered quickly.

"Wouldn't you mind knocking _and _waiting for an answer?" Ron shrieked, as he put his shirt covering his body.

"Whatever," Hermione said crossing the room and sitting in the floor and showing a book she had kept under her arm. "I couldn't find anything very useful about the horcruxes," She said quickly looking at Harry. As on cue, he moved out from his bed and sat in the floor with her, both -Harry and Hermione- looked at Ron expecting him to join them. Ron muttered something unintelligible and crawled to where they sat.

"Then what's this book for?" Ron asked.

"I said I couldn't find anything_ very_ useful. This is useful none the less," Hermione replied opening the book and passing quickly its pages. She stopped suddenly and went backwards. Ron and Harry shared a puzzled look. "There it is," We heard her mutter. "I found a small note about the destruction of horcruxes."

"And you say that's not very useful?" Ron asked astonished. "Did you happen to find the other horcruxes and didn't give _them_ much importance either?"

"Ronald," She said with a glare. "It is only a small note, and it doesn't specify it refers to Horcruxes."

"Then what does it say?" Harry asked trying to avoid a snap from Ron and a future confrontation between both of his friends.

"It is a book about the properties of the soul and many theories that have been made over the years. There is only a small note on the destruction of the soul's residence," Hermione started explaining but was soon interrupted by a shriek of Ronald.

"That's the body!" He shrieked. Then he coughed trying to recover his virility. "And we know how to destroy that, one unforgivable curse and tarah! The job is done," He developed annoyed.

"One of the things that explains the book's introduction is that the residence is any living corps to whom the soul does not belong to, but somehow the soul resides in it," Hermione explained, not minding Ron's outburst.

"But the horcruxes, we know of, weren't alive" Harry said not understanding the direction of Hermione's search.

"But there could be," Hermione insisted. "I mean, we have nothing to tell us the contrary… so I thought we couldn't really eliminate the possibility"

Not only did they not found any other remark about the 'soul's residence' but the book only mentioned two or three things that _didn't_ destroy it. Great, now not only did they have to think of objects Voldemort might have used as horcrux, but also people?

Contrary from Ron, sleep came late for Harry, after Hermione sneaked out of the room. He rolled over his sheets thinking about the horcruxes, and also about Joy and her daughter. He didn't quite understand the link Joy had with Snape, but he was curious about it. Probably she wasn't too close to Snape. Maybe a distant cousin like Ron had said. He tried not giving it much thought, but in one of his turns he saw the clock in the wall saying it was almost two am.

But what if Joy, the kind looking woman, was not a relative but Snape's wife? And Buffy had lied about her father? Or worse, she didn't know she was related to the slimy git?

The next morning he tried bumping into Dumbledore. But the person in question did not appear until the late morning and after saying a communal 'Good Morning' he asked Joyce and Buffy apart and left the room. Harry had no idea where Dumbledore had gone to, but he was sure the extendible ears would not be of much help.

Hermione was busy talking and giggling with Ginny and Tonks. Tonks was apparently showing something to both girls, making them blush and giggle madly. The metamorphmagus gave from time to time glances in Remus' directions. Harry thought he understood what they talked about. Remus had asked Tonks to marry him a week ago. Sirius had told Harry, it had taken some liquor to give Remus enough courage to pop the question, and even more to tell Tonk's family about it. The wedding had no date, but Harry suspected it would be soon and also it would be very quiet and with not a lot of people.

Talking about Sirius, he came into the room and dropped himself next to Harry. He grinned and muttered something Harry thought was a Good Morning. And he served himself some of the breakfast rests. He took several bites before he started talking.

"We were thinking about going to Diagon Alley sometime next week," He said and took another bit.

"But we don't have the school's list yet," Harry muttered confused. Sirius smiled.

"We are not going because of the school Harry, we were thinking about going to show Buffy around," He said grinning.

"Oh," Harry said, as he didn't find anything smarter to say.

"And I believe presents will be in order… for certain birthday next week," Sirius added with a big chunk of bread in a side of his mouth. Harry grinned immediately. He had never had a reason to long for his birthday; he had never spent a birthday with people who cared about him. His birthday had stopped being important for a long time, Harry had even forgotten some of his birthday until he saw a calendar.

Harry couldn't find any words that could describe his excitement. He left Sirius finish his plate before asking a question that had popped in his head while he looked at the ceiling the night before.

"Is Buffy coming to Hogwarts with us?" He asked, and he noticed Sirius eyes gave him a suspicious look before answering with a question of his own.

"Why would she?"

"Well, she looks about our age… so she should go to school right?" Harry stuttered.

"I don't think she'll be going to Hogwarts any time soon," Sirius answered seriously before standing up, a way -Harry understood- Sirius used to explain he wanted to end the conversation.

"Why not?" Harry asked standing up and following his godfather closely, not ready to drop the subject.

"Because her mother does not think she needs to," Sirius answered avoiding any eye contact.

"And what about her father?" Harry insisted. "Won't Snape like his daughter to go to Hogwarts, so she can see him terrorize the students?" Words had escaped Harry's lips without his knowledge. Sirius was as shocked as Harry. He had stopped in his steps and turned to look at Harry. But Harry could not find any trace of anger in his face, he found the complete opposite, Sirius was grinning widely. He laughed loudly, his bark like laughter traveling the corridors making the portraits look at him as if he had gone mad.

"Snape having a daughter?" Sirius managed to echo. Harry felt incredibly stupid. "Buffy is Snape's niece, not daughter… Joy is his sister," Sirius explained as he saw the embarrassment in his godson's face. "I have to say this to Remus," He muttered and grinned at Harry sheepishly. "Talking about Remus, he should come with us tomorrow… I was thinking 'bout buying a robe for the wedding," Sirius said, subtly changing the subject.

"Do they have a date?" Harry asked as they entered the library and he sat in one of the couches.

"No, but I think if Tonks doesn't hurry Remus might get cold feet," Sirius said with a half grin. "Do you have a robe?"

"Uhm, I have the one I used for the Yule Ball," Harry answered with a shrug.

"You should try it on; see if it still fits…" Sirius recommended. "And also check if you need anything to finish any of your homework," Sirius added responsibly after breaking an apparent stern face with a smile. "See, I could almost pass for a very responsible godfather," Harry could only chuckle in return.

"Almost being the key word," The obnoxious and silky voice of Severus Snape interrupted the mood. Harry could say he was almost happy of seeing Snape's arm still held a bandage.

"Severus," Sirius greeted evenly. The last year Sirius had been doing an enormous amount of effort not to give in into Severus multiple taunts. Sirius had seen how his and James' foolish behavior in their younger days had shocked Harry when he had gotten a glimpse of it towards Severus. And he wanted to show his godson how people could change, and to mirror James' change when he had grown out of the childish ways.

"Have you seen Joy?" Snape asked without getting into any exchange of banalities.

"She and her daughter are talking to Dumbledore at the moment," Sirius answered with an even tone. "Are you in speaking terms now?" He added when Severus turned to leave. However his tone did not held any mockery. Snape turned slowly on his steps.

"We haven't been in speaking terms for some time, I am used to it," He replied. Harry had noticed how Snape's features had hardened with Sirius' commentary.

"What was that all about?" Harry asked after Snape had left the room, therefore leaving the hearing range.

"Joy Snape," He answered before standing up, once again trying to break a conversation by leaving it.

"Did you use to be together?" Harry asked as his godfather tried to leave the room.

"We were," Sirius answered, showing a bittersweet smile. And he left the room with any other explanation.

* * *

I'd like to know what you think, please review. 


	7. The selfish and the selfless

**DISCLAIMER: **Neither Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me. I only own the plot.

**Reviews:** Thanks to _stasa; Allen Pitt; Silent Me; Mz Mischief; Dax; enchantedlight; Sillygirrl._

**Author's Note:**

Hello! Sorry for the delay, but I seem to be having some problems. One with the time, because I started college a week ago. And two with my computer, who has been nagging me lately and not letting me correct the chapters. _I will ask if there's someone who would want to help me beta the story? Leave a message with your mail and I will get in touch with you as soon as possible._

Having a beta would help me a lot with the time issue, I do not have as much time as I would like to re-read the chapters. So I would really appreciate if someone would offer for the job.

Now for this chapter, we have a small change in the Buffy verse, which is Buffy's birthday. I changed it for the sake of the plot.

**THE TRUTH WITHIN**

By: Anne79

Chapter VI

_The selfish and the selfless_

After the moving and emotional confession… let's rephrase that, after the overcome of shock, Joyce didn't ask to speak to Buffy alone. Nor did Joyce try to speak to her at all. Buffy was shocked as well, but for her mother's behavior. She could not understand how this woman asked her to accept the existence of a complete new world –without mentioning Joyce had kept it hidden- but she could not accept the crappy life her daughter had been living for the last three years.

It was unacceptable.

Buffy was pissed, like she hadn't been before. She had considered leaving the mansion they seemed to be in. But she hadn't been lucky enough to find the main door. And also there was the small thing on the back of her mind that reminded her: her friends were in danger because of her, and even Giles was missed in action.

Dumbledore had not given her the pitiful smile and look she had been expecting. He looked proud. As if he was happy Buffy was made of better and stronger cookie dough. She had followed him out of the room, but he had started a small conversation with one of the boys she had met at dinner yesterday. They boy had given her a look, but by now Buffy was used to having him giving looks to her and her mother.

Then she had almost bumped into her beloved uncle. He seemed to be pleased at first but then he showed a very stern face.

"Hi," Buffy said, not sure of how she was to act when she had met her long lost uncle only yesterday and they hadn't exchanged more than two words.

"Hello," He seemed to be as uncomfortable in this situation as her.

"So..." She continued.

"So what?" He asked confused.

"I don't know." She muttered embarrassed, she was giving a very stupid first impression.

"We were thinking of taking you tomorrow to Diagon Alley," He said suddenly, out of the blue.

"Oh, that's nice," Buffy said giving him a full smile, trying to disguise the fact she didn't understand of what he was talking.

"Do you know of Diagon Alley?" He asked after some seconds of consideration.

"Not really." She admitted showing a sheepish grin. He showed something that could pass for a smile.

"We will go to buy the materials you will need, if you want to receive proper training," He elaborated. Little did Buffy know how difficult the small exchange of words was for Severus Snape. Because for him, Buffy represented and reminded him many things. She was the main cause his sister didn't want to know anything about him. Even when he had become a Death Eater Joyce managed to tolerate meeting him, even if he had been the murderer of innocent people. But when this child had been conceived, any possibility of repairing the deteriorated relationship had been abruptly eliminated. Also, Buffy Summers looked incredibly like her mother; she looked so much like the sister who used to worship the grounds he walked in. Just before their worlds had been detached. Just before he had failed her completely.

"So it's like a mall?" She asked frowning.

"No, it's an Alley," He replied, surprised he hadn't answered as sharply as he would have normally for such a redundant question.

"Oh," She said before resuming biting her lower lip. "So ..." She said seconds after, Severus was about to repeat the same bit of conversation from before. Buffy broke in a grin. "Do I get a wand?" She asked excitedly.

"Of course." He replied, pleased by her interest.

"It's not as hard as it seems, is it?" Buffy asked continuing to chew her lip anxiously.

"Some parts are more difficult than others," He admitted nodding slowly. "But you _are_ your mother's daughter" She looked at him confused.

"Mom said it didn't really matter if we come from wizards or muggies," Buffy asked, she remembered also he used to be part of a 'racist' group.

"Muggles" He corrected out of reflex. "No, I suppose it doesn't," He replied with a grimace. "But there are some talents we inherit from our parents." He explained staring right in Buffy's eyes. He seemed to be seeing something Buffy couldn't quite understand or even define. "Do you know where your mother is?" He asked changing the subject. She shook her head. "I'll continue my quest then." He finished with -what Buffy understood was a- very rare honest smile.

She couldn't find any other phrase to hold his attention as he left. She felt a bit disappointed. Even if the first talk she had had with her uncle had not been an ugly one, it had not been exactly warm and cuddly, with lost of tears and manifestations of regrets. Her uncle seemed to be as good as her mother at keeping his secrets, but way better than her at controlling his feelings. He was neutral, somewhat stoic. She supposed his sarcastic attitude was one of the reasons people in the house didn't seem to like his company much, including her mother. She knew of course the main reason should be because he used to be evil. But she had to respect what he did, it took a lot of guts to regret your former position, say you are sorry and risk your butt playing double agent.

As she only knew by memory where the dinning room was, she went there directly, hoping she could find someone to talk to. She would have loved having her friends –her real friends: Willow and Xander- there, but she had to settle for what she had for the moment. She planned on staying there until she figured out the whole truth within her mother's story.

Then the end of the discussion reached her again. She was so self-absorbed at the moment she didn't notice the door until it was too late to step back, and it hit her right in the front of her face. She stumbled but didn't fall. At the other side of the door was a blushing red head. Ron, she reminded.

"Are you alright?" He asked, his eyes completely open, his eyebrows completely raised. "I'm sorry, I didn-"

"It's ok," Buffy mumbled and went inside the dinning room –Ron holding the door for her-. "A little bit of ice will do"

"What did you do now Ron?" Another red head –this time the only girl- asked bringing with her the ice bag Buffy had just asked for. The red head –Buffy couldn't remember her name- handed it out for her. And Buffy placed it immediately in her sour cheek. Buffy knew the bag was not needed, the slayer's healing would have it all patched up in a matter of minutes. But she could not risk, for those she expected didn't know about her identity to find out about her. "I'm Ginny" The girl said sitting next to her in the bench.

"Buffy," Buffy muttered from behind the ice bag. The girl giggled.

"I'm really sorry," Ron repeated.

"Don't worry, things like this happen" Buffy muttered. "It's my fault for being distracted,"

"So America," Ginny said after some minutes of complete silence. "Is it nice there?"

"It's sunny where I live" Buffy muttered. "It's called Sunnydale… you do the maths," The girl giggled once again.

"Cute boys?" As soon as those words left the girls mouth, her brother jumped like a defensive wild animal.

"_Ginny!"_ He growled.

"What?" Ginny said in return, making herself sound innocent.

"Ronald, you don't expect her to be like _you_, do you?" Buffy heard Hermione saying as she entered the dinning room.

"There are some," Buffy answered with a small grin, trying to avoid what she thought would be an almost sure discussion. Ginny and Buffy were going to get along just fine.

"How old are you by the way?" Ginny asked curiously breaking the subject.

"Sixteen," Buffy answered with a sigh.

"Oh that's great!" The red headed girl cried cheerfully. "When you come to Hogwarts you'll be with me!"

"She could be with us too Gin," Hermione said reasonably. "It only depends on her birthday, when's your birthday Buffy?"

"September the tenth," She said frowning.

"Oh!" Ginny cried out with a grin. "You'll be with me!"

"Actually…," Buffy muttered, not happy about having to break the girl's bubble. "I don't think I'll be going to Hogwarts any time soon,"

"Why not?" Ginny asked confused, frowning, disappointed.

"Because…," Buffy started and pulled away from her face the bag of ice, which was starting to melt and to mess up her mascara. "My mom doesn't think I need to, and also I have to go back to the States….," They waited for her to end up the phrase. ".. To finish school and stuff," She finished smiling innocently. Buffy Summers was anything but innocent.

"Yes and think Ginny, she told us she doesn't know any magic," Hermione reasoned with the red head, Buffy imagined that if she joined Hermione and Ginny in one body she would probably get Willow. Even with the red head.

"Yup," Buffy nodded, not having really heard the comment.

"And she doesn't even have a wand!" Ron added. Ginny shrugged.

"But Severus told me I was going to get one," Buffy said defensively.

"Why would you need a wand, if you don't know how to use it?" Ron asked outraged. She noticed Hermione was glaring him badly, just like Ginny.

"She could catch up you know?" Hermione's and Ron's friend –Howard, Buffy thought- said adding himself to the conversation.

"Yup, actually I think they want me to learn the basics or whatever," Buffy added.

"We could help you if you want," Hermione offered, and Ginny besides her nodded in approval.

"And what would she learn from another girl with unfinished training?" The silky voice of Buffy's uncle came from behind. She noticed how Hermione did not response but stayed quiet and blushed.

"Well, she could help me practice while you guys make your little meetings to try saving the world," Buffy answered. She knew she wasn't supposed to take a side in the discussion, but she could not help but intervene after she had heard her uncle's haughty tone. He stared at her, not showing any sign of shock or displeasure at her tone or her response.

"Indeed," He whispered softly.

"What's wrong Severus?" Joyce's voice said from behind him, he stepped forward –away from the door- letting his sister come inside.

"Your daughter was giving suggestions for her future education," He answered, with a smooth tone.

"Oh Buffy, there you are," Joyce said smiling at her daughter. "I was about to call you to eat."

"We are at the dinning room," Buffy answered flatly.

Lunch/Dinner went down smoothly. Buffy had kept talking to both girls, Hermione and Ginny, with some interventions from Ron and Harold –whom Buffy know remembered wasn't Harold but Harry-. Her mother hadn't sat next to her, or even close. She had sat next to Sirius, with whom she seemed to share laughs every now and then. Severus had left shortly after the second exchange of words, with Dumbledore. Not before Dumbledore reminded Buffy and the others that they were going to Diagon Alley tomorrow.

Afterwards she had finally got a chance to speak with her mother. She was ready to knock some sense out of her, in a non violent kind of way. But it seemed that her mother was also ready to deal with the issue they had in hands. Buffy waited out side in the corridor, when Joyce came out of the dinning room; she stopped in front of Buffy knowing that there was no way out.

"I will go back in September to Sunnydale, whether you want it or not." Buffy dropped out, not caring for a smoother beginning. She saw the girls –Hermione and Ginny- going out of the living room with Harry and Ron tagging along. They passed her, waved and continued walking.

"Do you want to go to our room?" Joyce asked stoically. The tone, the coldness, Buffy could not recognize them I her mother. She used to think her mother was a very kind, most of all warm mother. She was a caring mother. Even if sometimes Buffy had complained for not having the best friend relationship some girls seemed to naturally have with their mothers, she had always felt content with the relationship they had. Joyce was not stoic, she was not cold, and she did not look displeased when Buffy talked to her. But that was all Buffy could find in her mother now, she kept thinking if maybe she had been wrong and this wasn't her mother after all.

Joyce did not wait for an answer; she just turned and walked to their room. She did not turn to make sure Buffy was following; she did not walk slowly so Buffy could catch up with her. She just walked quickly, reached the room, opened the door, went inside and waited for Buffy to come right after her.

Buffy went inside disappointed at her mother's behavior. She entered into the silent room and turned on one of the lamps. She wanted a bath real bad. "Do we get any clothes?" She asked breaking the silence.

"Do you know how I feel about this?" She heard her mother's voice saying from the window. Joyce stood looking outside the window –with her back towards Buffy-.

"Oh God! Could you please stop being so selfish?" Buffy hissed dropping at the boards of her bed. "Have you even considered _my_ feelings for only one second?" Joyce turned to finally look at Buffy straight in the face.

"Yes, I have," She admitted while coming closer to Buffy. She noticed how Buffy turned to stare at the wall rather than her, so she stopped and sat in her own bed instead. "This whole day I have thought only of you…"

"You have a great way of showing it," Buffy muttered.

"…I have been thinking of what you must have felt when that men told you, you were the slayer; I have been thinking about how you must have felt when you couldn't be with your friends, or when you faced death and accepted dying for a bigger cause. I have been thinking how rough it must have been to kill your boyfriend, but most of all how horrible it must have been to find him after he had lost his soul and he wasn't him… I understand how you felt at the moment, the betrayal, the pain… the impotence" Joyce's eyes were empty, they saw right past Buffy as if a long lost memory had come out of nowhere. Buffy was worried. This was a look she hadn't seen in a while in her mother. Not after the divorce. It seemed also that Buffy's persistent stare had woken Joyce, who shook her head softly as if to shake off the memories. "I know what you must be thinking. You think it is cruel of me not to accept your reality after you have come to accept mine," She did not waited for an answer from Buffy. She didn't need to. "I think what bother each of us are the same things, why didn't the other tell us?" Joyce brushed her hair. "I am sorry I have acted as I have. I am sorry I kicked you out of the house… but I don't understand why you didn't tell me?"

"Because you wouldn't have believed me," Buffy muttered from her bed feeling ashamed of her answer. She glanced shortly at her mother, and instead of seeing surprise she saw understanding.

"Probably," Joyce admitted more to herself than to Buffy.

"I mean when I did, you didn't quite react like the best mother in the World. Kicking out your daughter out of the house, I don't think it's in any parenting book," Buffy added with a small smirk.

"I should have been there for you Buffy, I could have helped…" Joyce regretted as she massaged her temple.

"I don't think so, you would have just put me in more danger," Buffy disagreed. They both stayed in silence. Buffy couldn't dare to ask her mother about the secrets she kept, and Joyce could not continue asking Buffy about her secrets, if Joyce kept hers so well under her sleeve. "Where do we go from here?"

"I would prefer that before you go to Sunnydale, that we get some news from your watcher," Joyce demanded. Buffy nodded. "We can't just go back; Dumbledore will probably want the security of the place heightened."

"We?" Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I can't let you leave like that," Joyce said seriously staring into her daughter's hazel eyes.

"Mom, but you are needed here… weren't you saying how big of an asset you were for the Order?" Buffy asked suspicion rising, instead of being touched by her mother's words.

"You are my biggest responsibility Buffy," Joyce said. "I can't just stay here wondering if you are alright," Joyce noticed how suspicious Buffy looked. Her daughter knew she was hiding things from her.

"Why do they call you Joy?" Buffy asked out of the blue. It was Joyce's turn to become nervous.

"Because that's my name," Joyce said. She had stood up before Buffy asked anything, so she took back her place in her bed. "My mother named me Joy Solitude Snape; I changed it when I went to the States."

"Joy and Severus, she didn't have the best taste in names, did she?" Buffy muttered.

"I like it; it's just that I needed to change some things in case anyone would want to track me down," Joyce explained. She knew where this conversation was going; she needed to end it before Buffy started making the touchy questions she didn't want to answer. "I'm going to see where they put the suitcases"

"Suitcases?" Buffy echoed. "We have suitcases?"

"I packed some of my things and some of those you left at home… Dumbledore brought the things you left at your place in Los Angeles" Joyce explained as opened the door.

"The rent? I didn't pay this month," Buffy said worried.

"I'm sure Dumbledore took care of that also… we don't want any trail," Joyce said before breaking into a smile and leaving the room.

* * *

Now please Review, I'd like to know what you think!


	8. The censured confession

**DISCLAIMER: **Neither Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me. I only own the plot.

Thanks to: **stasa **(next chapter you'll get Diagon Alley and the wand! chan chan CHAN!)**; Mz Mischief (**Don't worry about it! Thanks anyways!** ); enchantedlight; Silent Me; Allen Pitt**(Everything will come, just wait. Thanks!);** Sillygirrl( **Thank you, that's my goal in this story trying to complete one full view by giving different ones. Thanks!

**Author's Note:**

_So prepare yourselves once again for a heavy chapter. Lots of info, I'm tightening some of the loose ends. If some questions rise… you know what to do. Review!_

* * *

**THE TRUTH WITHIN**

By: Anne79

Chapter VII

_The censured confession_

Buffy stared at the door for a long time after her mother left. She was starting to feel frustrated by this situation. Of not knowing, of not understanding, of not feeling comfortable, of not feeling she belonged into this world her mother seemed to be so fond of. She wanted to have the answers. She had decided to stay here only until September because she knew this was enough time to find out what she needed to know, or at least she hoped it would be enough. She knew there was something being omitted about the prophesy; she knew there was something more in the protection the Order offered.

Buffy then remembered something. Her mother had talked about betrayal. Who had been the one who had betrayed her trust? Had it been her uncle Severus? Was her mother hiding all the things her brother had done, to protect him? Or maybe herself?

Buffy laid down in her bed. Not remembering how she had gotten into bed the night before. She waited for her mother to come, but Joyce took her time. When Joyce finally got back, the light was turned off . Joyce thought she was asleep, Buffy didn't show otherwise. She relaxed and closed her eyes when her mother turned a dimmer light and approached to check if she was awake. Buffy opened her eyes as she sensed her mother was far from her. She noticed the packages her mother kept with her, they were floating. It was the first time Buffy saw Joyce doing magic. She noticed her mother held a wand and made a few flicks before dropping softly the things in front of the wardrobe. Then another flick and the clothes went out quickly from the suitcases, they folded and they got into their drawers, or they hanged in the closets.

A small box went out from the last suitcase and it flew to her mother's bed. Buffy knew that box. When she was little her mother kept it far from Buffy's reach. She had once asked her what it was; her mother had dodged the question. Buffy hadn't seen the box ever since. It had been changed of place, or maybe thrown away. Buffy chose to believe the second option; she had been too young to doubt her mother's words.

And now here it was, finally exposed. As if on cue, her mother went to her bed and sat in the border of the bed. As she was sitting in a way she could see Buffy's face, Buffy was forced to close her eyes. She heard a creak that could say the wooden box had been opened. She heard the sound of papers. Buffy was curious, she stretched as if something had awoken her naturally. She opened her eyes slowly, trying to look tired. She saw her mother's eyes focusing on her, and her mother's hands got the papers into the box, slowly, silently, patiently, with no harsh movement that could attract Buffy's attention into them. Buffy yawned.

"'ou got 'e clo's?" She said in between the yawn. A loud clack told Buffy the box was closed once again. "You got the clothes?" Buffy repeated.

"Yes they are in the closet," Joyce said, staring into Buffy's eyes. She looked as if she knew Buffy was faking her little act. Buffy rolled over and jumped out of the bed. She opened the closet quickly pulling out an old pair of pj's. "The bathroom is outside, down the hall, second door on the left," Her mother instructed. Buffy nodded and took off, but she noticed the box was still in her mother's protective hands.

She went inside the bathroom thinking she had to take the fastest shower she could. She regretted it immediately when the hot water touched her sour back. But she had to go inside that room before her mother hid the box. She dressed quickly and begged not to find anyone on the hallway. She opened the door slowly; she went out, her dirty clothes in her hands.

"Isn't it early to go to bed?" She heard a masculine voice behind her. She cursed in her head. She turned quickly and found Harry wearing a smirk that did not suit the first impression Buffy had gotten from him. There was something, something about that smirk that reminded her of someone else. "Jet lag?" He asked, seeing she wasn't giving anything that would appear to be an answer. She nodded.

"I'm still tired," It was a half lie. She wasn't tired, not completely. But she could appreciate some sleep. She smiled shortly and mumbled a goodbye; she turned and went inside her room quickly. "So what's with the box?" She asked as she went in and saw her mother in -what seemed to be- the same position she had left her.

"Which box?" Joyce asked apparently clueless.

"The one you had open when I woke up," Buffy replied rising an eyebrow. "You know the one you used to have on the top of your closet when we lived in Los Angeles, the one made of wood," Buffy refused to look clueless. She needed answers. And she was sick of waiting until everybody was comfortable enough to pull the truth out of the closet.

"Oh that one…" Joyce said. Buffy waited a few seconds of silence for an extension. "Oh, I gave it back to Dumbledore."

"Gave it back?" Buffy echoed not understanding.

"Yes, he had given it to me a long time ago, I was just keeping it for him," Joyce answered smiling; Buffy wanted to believe there wasn't another lie in her mother's words, or at least an omission.

"What was there inside the box?" Buffy asked.

"Some papers I collected from school…" Joyce replied folding a sweater in her lap. Buffy didn't ask further, she left her dirty clothes in a corner. She opened the sheets of the bed and squeezed herself inside her bed. "I wanted to become a teacher at Hogwarts, I had made the Auror's formation, but I didn't completely love the job. So I tried to apply to become the teacher of Defense Against The Dark Arts," She heard her mother saying. Buffy turned and Joyce was staring at her.

"What's an auror?" Buffy asked clueless, and Joyce smiled at her daughter.

"It's like a policeman, …" Joyce answered and Buffy gave her a look who showed she could not see her mother in the blue suit. "With magic is better," Joyce said with a shrug. She stood up and pulled out from a drawer of the table next to the window a small book. "My mother didn't want me to become an auror, much less a DADA professor but she died and I decided to pursue my dream…" She sat next to Buffy. She opened the small leather book, to reveal some photos. "Photos and paintings in the magical world, they tend to move," She announced before Buffy noticed the figures in the photos were indeed moving. "This is me and Severus when we were little…" Buffy could see her mom, so much like herself with a long blond pony tail chasing her as she ran wildly in a garden. A boy watched her amused, her had black long hair. Buffy noticed her mother was chasing butterflies. "I couldn't bring this to Sunnydale without giving explanations; I asked Albus to guard it," She passed the pages and with them the years passed by. Buffy had never seen photos from her mother when she was little. Buffy had only seen some normal photos her mother had from when she met Hank. But not from before. She saw her mother growing with the photos with her uncle. "These are from Hogwarts," Joyce said as they reached some photos in which her mother wore uniform in almost everyone.

"It's a castle?" Buffy wondered after seeing a photo that showed the lower part of the building.

"Yes, it's a castle," Joyce confirmed nodding. "There's a big lake also, and inside it, lives a giant squid," Buffy continued watching the tons of photos her mother had taken. "My mother gave me a camera when I turned eleven, I loved taking pictures."

"Those are Sirius and Remus?" Buffy wondered as she saw a picture of her mother with three good looking boys and a red headed girl. "This guy… ain't he the friend of Ron?" Her mother chuckled.

"Yes, those are Sirius and Remus," Her mother said pointing at two of the boys. Buffy noticed how the Sirius -of the picture- couldn't take her mother –of the picture- out of his sight. "And this one, he's Harry's father," Joyce explained. "He married Lily," She continued pointing at the red head. "And they had Harry."

"Lily is the one who sacrificed herself, isn't she?" Buffy remembered and Joyce just nodded. They passed the picture and continued watching the others. Buffy couldn't help but to notice how as the photos with this group increased with time, the photos with Severus decreased _severely_. She believed she could see a relationship growing between Sirius and her mother. Contrary to James –Buffy had started to become familiar with the names of the four musketeers- and Lily, who seemed to despise each others guts more and more with the years. She found curious how they had ended up together and her mother and Sirius weren't –Buffy hoped there wasn't another little detail she should know-. "So why didn't Sirius go with you to the States?" Buffy finally asked. Her curiosity needed to be fed; she couldn't understand how it had ended up as it had when the love affair stayed the same through the pages of the album.

"Because for Sirius, James will forever be the brother he always wanted. They were family," Joyce explained and Buffy noticed sadness in her mother's eyes, and lots of regret. "He broke up with me the moment he knew Lily was pregnant," Buffy's eyes widened.

"Lily and him?" Buffy asked horrified, Joyce smiled and shook her head.

"Not at all, Sirius would never do that to James… and I don't think he ever cheated on me, at least that's what every girl wants to think," Joyce answered with a small smile that did not hold too much happiness. "There was a prophesy concerning a baby who would be born at the ends of July, and he would be the one to fight Voldemort. Lily found out she was pregnant and when she told the Order, Albus alerted her of the prophesy… because her baby was going to be born at the ends of July or the start of August. The baby fitted perfectly for it, Albus wanted to protect the Potters and also the Longbottoms –because Alice Longbottom was also pregnant- so they started to watch over them and forming plans… and Sirius and I started fighting because I was one of those who thought Lily had nothing to fear until she went into labor –and for me Lily has always been the best friend I ever had, I would have died for her-, but Sirius thoughts were completely focused on protecting them, even before the baby was marked as the one. One day he came over to my house, and we talked. He told me he needed to know Lily and James were safe before we-" Her mother stopped suddenly and subconsciously she touched her ring finger. "He had proposed before… before everything happened. We were going to marry in October, but he postponed it because it wasn't safe. We changed dates and he postponed it again, and again. There was always a different reason; the last reason was Lily and James. I grew tired of it. Even Lily and James didn't understand Sirius' need for postponing the date. So when we talked I gave him an ultimatum, either we married or we would break up to never return again back together. It's not like I would have left Lily if I knew she was in danger, I would have died for her like Sirius would have for James. But I didn't want to put on hold the wedding anymore. I wanted to have a reason to fight for, I wanted a future to dream of. At the end of the conversation we both understood our desires were just not the same. We broke up."

"And that's why you went to the States?" Buffy asked curiously. She had never thought her mother was the type of woman to leave her friends over a break up. Her mother looked saddened. Buffy noticed the tearful eyes, and the small wrinkles showing in her mother's frown. And once again, she understood that wasn't the whole reason. That wasn't why her mother left. Once again her mother was keeping something to herself.

"It was a reason yes," Joyce nodded, but Buffy knew better now. "Two months later, I moved away, I met Hank and I had you," She said. The phrase sounded as if it came from a recording machine, it sounded rehearsed. It sounded like a repetitive sound with no meaning into it.

"Did he follow?" Buffy asked suddenly. She glanced at her mother's defeated gaze. Joyce shook her head.

"Everything was very dangerous when I went away, and it got worse. I didn't expect him to follow," Joyce excused, but her empty stare said something else. Buffy didn't know a girl who wouldn't dream of having a romantic love scene where Prince Charming follows and tries to convince you to stay, especially if she loved the Prince Charming like Joyce used to love Sirius. Buffy felt sorry for her mother. She didn't think the story behind the photo would be such a painful one, specially seeing the warm welcome Joyce had received from Sirius.

"And you two don't hate each other?" Buffy asked knowing the questions was inappropriate but also knowing this was as appropriate as it could be.

"When you get to this point Buffy, when you are one of the few survivors…" Her mother shut her eyes close in pain. Her voice came out broken. "..We try to hold on to those who remind us better days, our youth… for me it's different. But for them, Sirius and Remus, they had to suffer the loss of their friends alone… I knew they died, and I cried for days. Hank never understood. But I had you Buffy, a reason to live and to stay strong. A reason to fight back. Sirius has been alone until he found Harry; Remus has been alone until he found Sirius."

"What do you mean by 'found'?" Buffy whispered softly. Her mother's eyes even closed had left some tears escape.

"The worst part of this entire story," Joyce muttered so softly that if Buffy wouldn't have had heightened hearing she would have thought her mother had stayed in silence. "They blamed Sirius for the Potters deaths," Joyce said shortly. "The Potters had been into hiding since Harry was born. They decided to do the Fidelius Charm: a spell in which you entrust your exact location to an only person, and only that person can reveal where you are. Others who are not aware of the secret may pass right next to your house and not notice it. The logical choice would have been Sirius. But they changed it at the last moment thinking they could fool Voldemort. Do you remember the chubby boy in the pictures?" She asked opening her eyes slowly. Buffy passed a few pages back, to finally look at the less notable member of her mother's crew. He was chubby indeed; he did not look like a very popular kid. But he didn't look threatening either.

"Peter," Buffy named and Joyce just nodded.

"He had been working as a spy for Voldemort; he sold Lily and James to Voldemort. He betrayed all of us," Joyce revealed, noticing her daughter's shocked impression. "And then he escaped. And everyone blamed Sirius. I never believed Sirius would do that, I never did. So they shipped Sirius off to Azkaban –the wizard's prison- and he stayed there for twelve years, until he escaped. He managed to convince Dumbledore that his story was true and also Harry and Remus. Only last year they finally caught Peter."

"Does dad know about this?" Buffy asked. Joyce looked surprised for the question. She hadn't considered Buffy might want to know if Hank was aware of this. To be honest, Joy hadn't considered Hank at all for a long time; she had been set free when they divorced.

"No, he doesn't… It was too complicated to explain," Joyce replied. "He is a muggle, if that's what you want to know…" She elaborated. She stood up; feeling her legs almost failed her. She kept strong her posture, she picked her night clothes and left just like Buffy had done before. She walked out of the door, still feeling the now dry tears in her cheeks, feeling tired and old. Old for the very first time in her life. If at thirty seven she felt old, she couldn't imagine what she would feel _if_ she ever reached the eighties. She chuckled softly with the last thought. She walked to where she knew the bathroom was. She was about to open but the door opened for itself, or at least it seemed to have opened for itself. It was Sirius the one who had opened it from the inside. Vapor came out from the bathroom, as Joy shared a small smile with whom she had shared and lost so much. She felt blush in her cheeks as he gave her that special signature smirk he had.

"I recommend for you to wait a bit," He suggested still smirking. "I believe everything's wet, I'll call Kreacher to clean it up… but if you don't want to wait there's another bathroom at the other end of the hall," He babbled grinning closing the door. She couldn't help but to grin also.

"I'll wait," She agreed smiling. He didn't move, still pressing his used clothes to his chest he leaned to the wall and smiled once again. "I thought you were going to tell Kreacher…"

"He'll figure it out on his own," Sirius replied smirking. "How are you?" He asked mimicking his old flirting ways.

"I'm exactly the same I was when you asked it this morning," She replied with a smirk on her own. But then she realized the 'déjà vu' of the scene, this was almost a routine for them. And she remembered all the time that had passed and all the events that had come between them and the smirk erased from her face, leaving only a friendly smile. The friendly smile a mother gives to her husband's friend. And Sirius understood, because Sirius always understood. He straightened up and returned the smile. He brushed his hair messily with his hand, unaware of how it made Joyce's heart skip a beat just for that action.

"Well good night Joy, I'm glad you are among us once again," He replied charmingly, politely, putting up his guard again too. "Say Good Night to Buffy as well," He added and smiled once again following his path. Joyce opened the bathroom and noticed it was spotless clean. Kreacher must have appeared and disappeared quickly while they talked. Joyce could help but to sigh when she closed the door behind her and got into the shower.

She thought of the pictures she had showed to Buffy. She thought of the girl she had been, so hopelessly in love, so full of hope and plans for the future. Of that girl who had her wedding gown hidden in the deepest of her closet, who had cried her soul out when Sirius had left that night and had never really come back after all. Joyce felt a nudge in her throat, as she remembered the events after he had left, all the things that had forced her to exile.

She shut the shower off when she noticed her wrinkly hands. She dried her hair with a quick spell. She smiled when she did; it had been a long time she couldn't do any simple spell. She got dressed and left the bathroom after she brushed the now dry hair. She went inside the dark room, which was once again in the dark. She left her dirty clothes with Buffy's, she went inside her bed in silence. She didn't know if Buffy was awake. She didn't want to risk waking her up, not after all the facts of her life she had shared with Buffy. She couldn't risk her asking any more questions when Joyce felt so vulnerable, so nostalgic and sad. Joyce couldn't risk this because then she would tell Buffy things Joyce never wanted Buffy to ever find out.

"Did you ever love him?" Buffy whispered in the dark. "Dad I mean… did you ever love him?" Now Joyce was in a cross-road. To be completely honest with Buffy, to start treating her own child like the almost woman she had become. Or to once again take the easy way out and to lie, to lie and preserve that small amount of innocence she could still see in her daughter's eyes when she laughed. The weight of the truth was a heavy one… did Joyce have the right to destroy Buffy's perceptions? To reveal at last that Hank had only been a cover? That Hank had been, and would always be the first man she saw in a bar?

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My favorite phrase : _And Sirius understood, because Sirius always understood._

I hope you guys liked this chap. I liked it.


	9. It can always get worse

**DISCLAIMER: **Neither Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me. I only own the plot.

**Reviews:**

**stasa (**thanks for that encouraging review!) **; enchanted light (**_Thank you_**!); Allen Pitt (**_I love how at every review you share some of your ideas, thank you. I really appreciate it. I don't think there will be a vamp attack immediately because Buffy will be under the scrutiny of so many people and under so many protection spells that vamps will find it hard to well... find her. But don't think I'm dismissing that idea, I'm just waiting for the right moment_**) ; Mz Mischief **_(I appreciate you for appreciating me! I was watching old Friends episodes and the phrase stuck. Lol. Thank you, it's nice to know you think as I do, I got some reviews saying it was going slow and I was starting to grow worried about it!);_** Sillygirrl (**_Thank you!)._

**Thank you.**

**Author's Note:**

I welcome myself back. Sorry for the delay. College started and I ran out of time to write. When I get a chance I'll continue... That means a bit of my time is yours until college starts.

Now let's continue ...

* * *

**THE TRUTH WITHIN**

By: Anne79

Chapter VIII

_It can always get worse_

Joyce hadn't said anything, she had fallen asleep and Buffy had let her. Her action had spoken louder than any excuse she could have given. Buffy had stayed up for some hours thinking, mixing thoughts and reviewing the information she had gathered. She fell asleep without meaning to. She only realized she had fallen asleep when she had woken up.

Her mother was nowhere in sight, the bed was made. The dirty clothes she had left in the corner were also gone. She stood up groggily and changed quickly into a simple outfit. She passed quickly to the bathroom, to make sure her hair wasn't going to scare anyone. Then she went to where she remembered the dinning room was.

On her way there, she found Remus who -after saying Good Morning- went back into his room. She went downstairs and at the hall she found a small congregation of people. As on cue, they all turned to see her; she brushed her hair once again nervously. She noticed her mom making her way through the small crow and she went to meet her. Joyce smiled and greeted her.

"What's up with everybody?" Buffy said as a response.

"We are going to Diagon Alley," Her mother reminded her. Buffy then remembered and felt rather silly for staying in bed for so long.

"Right now?"

"Yes, we'll be off in a couple of minutes, we are waiting for Remus and Nymphadora," Joyce explained. "I grabbed some toasts for you," Joyce said as she looked in her big sac-like purse three buttered toasts covered in a white tissue. Buffy took big bites of them quickly, and tried to remember if she had left something, she might need, upstairs. She almost choked when she remembered Mr. Pointy.

"Can I go upstairs?" Buffy asked her mother and as Joyce shook her head, Remus and Nymphadora went down the stairs.

Thankfully, not all who were in the crew were going to make the trip. At the end the group who were going to go reduced to: Buffy, Joyce, Sirius, Remus, Nymphadora, Mrs. Weasley, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Much to Ginny's displeasure.

While they waited for God knows what, Buffy noticed her mother had taken her wand with her. The wand was kept inside of a very fashionable coat. Then Buffy saw everybody -_but_ her- was using robes or "coats". Her uncle was far away from his sister and niece –Buffy didn't understand why he was there-. He did not even approach to say a polite good morning. Buffy believed this was for her sudden defensive stance of Hermione.

Joyce pulled out her wand and muttered something under her breath, her hair started to grow massively, the curls transformed into long flatter stripes. The color changed quickly from sandy blond to a very deep black. Buffy looked at her mother in shock, her mother then realized she hadn't explained anything to Buffy.

"Buffy dear, where we are going it's a very public place. We don't know whom we might run into. For security it is best they don't recognize us," She said with a smile, before muttering another spell, making her long straight nose to shorten up. Another spell and her eyes changed slightly form and color.

Buffy saw everybody staring at her with awe. Buffy felt for the very first time of the day like she wasn't the only one understanding what was happening. Then, she heard Nymphadora saying to the kids.

"That one I read she invented it herself!"

"Am I supposed to go in an outfit too?" Buffy asked not pleased by the prospect. "I mean nobody even knows how I look like… right?" She added unsure, her mother smirked. No good came from that smirk. "I mean is not like they have a comparing point to what I should look like. You are all dark and twisty… and well dad is not exactly findable..." She blabbered; she noticed the glances between some of the elder members of the Order.

"We can't risk it Buffy," Her mother declined smiling. Buffy was about to run for it but the spells caught her and she felt her hair shorten up into a mass of red curls. Then her skin even paled up. She didn't feel any changes in her face, but when she saw herself in the mirror she saw some freckles had appeared in her otherwise porcelain skin.

"If anyone asks you who you are, you just have to say you are a cousin from the Weasley's," Mrs. Weasley said. Buffy thought she did indeed look like a Weasley, if it weren't that they all had smooth straight hair and hers was a mass of curls. She shrugged and nodded.

"You could be Violet if you want," Ginny said receiving a fit of giggles from the younger women. Buffy frowned, not understanding the remark.

"Buffy in case we break up," Her mother said nervously. Joyce had thought of not letting Buffy go into the Diagon Alley, afraid that she might get lost, but most of all afraid that she might escape but specially afraid that she might get caught. "You go to where we'll arrive and wait for us there."

"Mom, don't worry about it," She comforted. "So what are we going to do there exactly?"

"We are getting you a wand," Severus answered squarely. "And some books for you to learn the basics."

"But I never said I wanted to lear-" she started to mumble but was soon interrupted by some instructions given by Remus.

"We'll be going by Floor Powder; we will stay only until four o'clock," He said. "We will divide in two groups: Mrs. Weasley, Sirius, Nymphadora, Hermione, Ron and Harry; and Joyce, Buffy and I. We will go to Ollivander's, you will go to do the errands and buy the books."

"What about .." Buffy felt short of words. "my- ..Severus…?" She patched up.

"I will be going to Gringots" Severus answered feeling as uncomfortable as Buffy felt. "The bank," He elaborated knowing Buffy couldn't possibly know what Gringots was.

"Why can't we go?" Buffy asked. "why are we dividing everything up?" She asked, frowning.

"We don't want to call any unwanted attention…" Joyce started to explain. Buffy just nodded, she still didn't know how much everybody knew, and how much she could reveal. She felt more vulnerable now it was for sure. The whole secret identity had lost its secret part and she felt it was no longer her secret to guard. "We don't want to be instantly associated to the Order."

"I suggest your group to go first," Remus said before any other question was made. Sirius nodded and Mrs. Weasley pulled out from her purse a dusty bag, she opened it and offered it to the boys. Ron grabbed a small amount of dust first and threw it to the fireplace near by, the fire turned green and he went in. Buffy had felt the urge to stop him from committing -what she thought was- suicide, but a more reasonable part of herself made her see the other adults in the room weren't even flinching at the side of the boy in flames. She heard him yelling something and then he was nowhere in sight. Harry, contrary to Ron's confidence, was a bit reluctant of doing the same. Mrs. Weasley showed him an encouraging smile and he went forward mimicking Ron. Then was the turn of Hermione, Nymphadora, Sirius and finally Mrs. Weasley.

The room was suddenly larger. And Remus pulled out from his own robe, a similar looking dusty bag. He opened it and showed it to me, he smiled.

"This is Floo Powder," He said and I nodded. "You just have to throw it to the fire, and say loud and clear where you want to go. The Network works with the fireplaces that are subscribed, normally for public places like Diagon Alley there are public stations you can travel to. Joy do you want to go first?" Remus asked staring at her mother.

"I'd rather go after Buffy," Joyce said looking uncertain.

"Alright," Remus agreed and he grabbed a handful of dust, he handed the bag to Joyce and he continued his explanation. "So Buffy, you will throw it like this," He did as he said. "And you will yell after stepping in DIAGON ALLEY!" He stepped inside the fire and as he yelled he disappeared. Buffy stared at her mother, still not feeling quite secure with the traveling fashion.

"Oh, and before I forget Buffy… the Violet thing wasn't a joke. Don't you ever answer to Buffy alright? We will all call you Violet," Her mother warned seriously. "And as for me, I will answer to Ava."

"Ava," Buffy echoed. "Why do you get the nice normal name, and I get to be a flower?" She muttered. She grabbed a handful of dust and tried mimicking Remus, she threw it and stepped inside. She was not ready to feeling nice cold tingling flames surrounding her. She giggled softly and yelled "Diagon Alley!" Then the nice cozy feeling of the fireplace was lost and she felt herself being ripped from the place she had been, she felt pushed around. Her eyes had immediately close because of all the dust around. But when she managed to open them, she noticed she was staring from the insides of many different fireplaces, and when she was finally getting to used to this bumpy harsh ride, she was thrown off and she fell -rather unceremoniously- in a dusty dirty ground.

"Excellent Violet," She heard Remus saying. "How do you like the ride?" He asked helping her get on her feet. She glared shortly and with her hands she dusted herself off a bit. "I'll help you with that…" Remus said pulling out his wand. He muttered a few Latin words and a golden ray of light collided in her, when she opened her eyes she saw her hands were dust free, so were her closes.

"That's one handy spell," She said smiling, then she heard a sound in the fireplace and she saw her mother landing perfectly. Her mother immediately cleaned herself up with the same spell Remus had used previously, and with a very somber look she went to Remus.

"Remus, how are you?" Joy said. She shook hands with Remus.

"Ava, long time no seen," Remus said continuing the game. Buffy had noticed some people where giving looks to Remus, or examining her mother or herself. "What brings you out from your cottage?" He asked politely.

"Some herbs, some eyes,… potion ingredients mostly," Joy answered evenly. "And you?"

"I just come to help Violet get a new wand… " He said sharing -what should be- a knowing smile with Buffy. "Her brother broke hers while playing quidditch."

"Oh," Joyce said showing no apparent worry for the event.

"Would you mind joining us?" Remus asked with the same polite tone he had been using the whole conversation.

"I believe not, …" Joy started saying.

"Well, maybe we could meet later to share an ice cream?" Remus suggested and Joyce immediately nodded.

"That would be better," She agreed and started walking away.

"We'll see you later then," Remus muttered as he watched her walk away, Buffy gave him a look that he couldn't respond. "Let's go Violet," He said and they made their way outside the station into the public street. Buffy could not believe her eyes when they stepped outside of the fireplaces station. She felt the need of waving her head around to be able to capture everything. There were wizards everywhere, each dressing weirder than the other. There were some making spells on the streets, some others yelling at the salesmen for the prices. There were small stores who exhibited different types of things. Buffy had seen an apparently non magical plate next to more evident magical cooking instruments that when she approached it started yelling 'You are too skinny! You should eat your vegetables if you want to grow healthy!' Remus had just chuckled and pushed her between the crowds.

There was also that tingle in the back of her head. She felt as she was being watched. And every time she looked around apart from finding so many wonderfully unknown things to her, she could also capture the glance of people who seemed to be looking at her as if …. No, she said to herself shaking her head. She was in disguise and they did not even know how she looked. She was calling the attention because of her red curls. Remus came to a stop and pulled her in front of a particular store. She could read over the door "Ollivander's". They stepped inside of the store and saw a small boy beaming at his mother showing her his wand. The woman was smiling as she handed an older looking man some coins from her purse and muttered a thank you. She grabbed the young boy's arm and headed outside.

"Oh, Remus Lupin, 13 inches oak hair of a unicorn, excellent for charms," The old man said as greeting. Remus in response, showed his wand and Buffy understood what the man had said. "I'm surprised it isn't broken yet," The man said and Buffy felt a shiver going down her spine. There was that feeling again, something close, something that didn't fit. She closed her eyes shaking her thoughts away. Naively thinking she could hide in a corner of her mind her instincts as a slayer. The man grabbed the wand and examined it quickly. With a small dirty handkerchief he rubbed it quickly and left it amazingly bright. Remus smiled and took it back.

"I am quite surprised as well" Remus said evenly. "Now, Miss Violet Weasley came today looking for a wand to replace her old one." He continued staring at Ollivander straight in the eye.

"Oh yes!" Ollivander replied with a strange gleam in his eyes. "I have been trying to find one worthy of-"

"I believe we could settle for a normal one," Buffy heard the strict voice of her mother behind her. Her mother was glaring with those eyes, so unlike her normally kind ones, at the old man, who just shrugged. Buffy was looking at her mother, but Joyce did not return the attention. She was too focused on not leaving Ollivander out of her sight.

"It is not I, who will say which wand belongs to her, it is the wand that chooses its master," The man replied honorably. Then he put between the mess in his table a long box and he opened it delicately. He pushed away the papers protecting the wand within. He took out a wand, and Buffy felt a knot on her throat. Ollivander brushed it and handed it to Buffy. "Give it a wave _Violet_," She grabbed it and felt warmth in the palm of her hand. When she waved it, everything happened fast. The whole store started to tremble and then Buffy noticed the shelves were rising and they were levitating. Scared, she left she wand in front and she stepped back. "No?" Ollivander said surprised. He shook his head and whispered something inaudible. Then he pulled a white box and made the same delicate procedure. He handed the smaller wand to Buffy and when she waved it nothing happened. "Alright," He mumbled and went between the shelves looking for another wand. Buffy didn't understand so she looked at her mother for an explanation. Her mother was frowning and biting her lip. Remus was patting her back. Buffy didn't understand the adult's behavior.

"What's wrong?" She asked breaking the silence Ollivander had left when he walked away.

"Nothing's wrong," Joyce said unconvinced and Buffy rolled her eyes. "Ollivander!" Her mother called suddenly. The man stepped in view with three boxes in his arms. "The one you think fits her the most, could you please hand it to her… we'll buy it. It doesn't matter," She said. "We just need a replacement," Ollivander frowned and nodded.

"It was the first one Miss, I thought that if we had to find a replacement then this one would be the next in line," Ollivander said motioning to the first wand.

"Alright we'll take it," Remus said voicing Joyce's wishes.

"We could still find another-"Ollivander started to say.

"We know there's no other, please leave it as it is," Joyce said. "I'll see you later?" She asked Remus and he nodded. Joyce left the store without saying anything to Buffy. The slayer was starting to feel pissed, and to feel quite frustrated in this world.

"Violet, this is a 12 inches long wand made out of cherry three. It holds inside tears of a phoenix. It does wonders with healing charms," Ollivander said as he wrapped the wand inside of its box with a light looking paper. He handed the box to her and gave her a curious look. "You do look like him," He whispered as he noticed Remus was occupied counting the coins.

"Like whom?" She asked bringing Remus attention.

"You do look a lot like your father," Ollivander said with a small gleam of triumph in his eyes. She noticed Remus polite appearance changing dramatically. He violently grabbed Ollivander's robe neck and he pulled towards him. He glared at him and said nothing. The exchange of words wasn't necessary. He tossed the coins at him and grabbed Buffy's arm rather strongly. He pulled her out of the store quickly and he got them inside the crowd of people. That's when Buffy understood a part of the nagging feeling at the back of her head. Remus was a werewolf.

The crowd seemed to be dissolving as they approached to a tall white marble looking building. She looked around as they approached to what was evidently an ice-cream parlor, but she found no sign of her mother. Remus sat in one of the tables outside the ice cream shop and Buffy mimicked him. She stared at him wondering about his state as a werewolf. She bit her lip stopping herself from asking in such public place. Even if she knew part of her was trying to warn her about Remus, she knew there was something else that didn't fit in that place. She looked around trying to figure it out.

"May I take your order?" The waitress – a green haired bored-looking girl- asked trying to sound as cheerful as she could moister.

"We're waiting for someone else," Remus said and the girl almost rolled her eyes. She sighed and walked to another table to repeat the same question. Buffy continued to stare around and after 15 minutes of waiting Remus decided it would be best if they asked their order and when Joyce –Ava- would arrive she could ask for hers. Twenty minutes later there was no sign of Buffy's mother. Remus had paid and recommended it would be best to return to the headquarters. It was getting late.

Another shiver went down Buffy's spine as she stood up. Remus led her through the newly gathered crowd. This time the crowd was different, these weren't people shopping. These were curious people trying to find out what happened. Buffy tried catching any information from the people they passed by, but they were too far from the scene to do anything but speculate of what might have happened. As they went nearer to the Floo Station, the crowd started to agitate. Remus murmured something to himself when he saw a group of wizards dressed of white going to the middle of the gathering. Remus stopped suddenly, for the first time giving real attention to what was happening. He tried rising on the tip of his feet to see something, but he failed to reach anything.

"What do you think happened?" Buffy asked.

"An accident probably," Remus said. "If it had been an attack there wouldn't be any people in here… maybe some aurors," He answered his eyes turning and flying quickly through the crowd trying to search for a familiar feature. "We should go," He said more determined. Buffy didn't feel in the position to argue. She just nodded and followed Remus once again. Then the crowd started to agitate once again, Buffy thought Remus would get out of the way as the white robed wizards started to walk their way. But he stayed put.

The crowd broke in two to let them pass, Buffy could see two grave looking wizards walking first with their wands out. And behind them, there was a floating body. A floating unconscious body with long black hair, an ivory skin…

"Mom!" Buffy yelled pushing the crowd. The white-robed wizards stopped suddenly at her cry. She managed to reach them but when she was about to touch her mother's face, a wizard stepped between them.

"Is this your mother young lady?" One of the wizards asked. His eyes studying her expression. Then Buffy understood the mistake she had just made. The only rule she had to follow, was not to reveal her identity.

"Violet!" She heard Remus anxious voice behind her. She felt his hand on her shoulder and the panting in his breath. He saw Joyce, and trying to look indifferent he squeezed Buffy's shoulder softly.

"Is it young lady? Is this your mother?" The Healer asked. Remus shook his head.

"Violet's mother died some months ago, we are very sorry" Remus answered solemnly. He then pushed her to the crowd without giving her even a chance of looking back. In the future Buffy wouldn't be able to say how they reached Grimmauld's Place, she had fallen in an almost catatonic state.

Immediately after Remus arrived after her in the fireplace, the members of the Order -who hadn't said anything when Buffy had arrived- started questioning the werewolf. Buffy just stepped back, feeling safe as they ignored her. She stopped as she touched softly the wall with her back. Then she turned and quickly located the stairs, she climbed them quickly and locked herself safely in her room. At first, she felt odd in there. She noticed the obvious different between her quickly made bed and her mother's who looked as if a maid had even ironed it.

Buffy sat in her mother's bed and she lay down. She hadn't noticed she had been biting her lower lip –more like chewing it- until she felt the salty, metal-like flavor of blood.

Once again Buffy was left with no answers.

* * *

I hope you guys didn't think I was going to continue giving only answers! Lol. I like adding questions to all of your heads and make you wonder what's going through mine.

Thank you for reading. Leave a review to let me know what you think.


	10. The not so long yet lost uncle

**DISCLAIMER: **Neither Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to me. I only own the plot.

**Author's Note:**

The encounter we've been all waiting for.

**THE TRUTH WITHIN**

By: Anne79

Chapter XI

_The not-so-long-yet-lost-uncle_

There was a knock on her door. She looked at the door as if it were playing a joke on her. The door was knocked on again. Buffy then thought it might be her mother, maybe the order was trying to make an undercover mission and her mother had been assigned to it. She felt almost the need of giggling for her foolishness and she opened the door quickly.

But it wasn't her mother. Severus Snape, more known as the not-so-long-but-surely-lost uncle stood with a serious expression on his brow. Buffy swallowed hard, but she didn't feel her legs failing her as they had the last couple of days.

"Where is my mom?" Buffy asked. She prepared for the worst.

"She's at Saint Mungo's Hospital for the Magical Maladies and Injuries," Severus answered. Buffy felt a lump at her throat.

"Hospital?" She mouthed.

"She fainted at Diagon Alley when she was going to the Parlor to meet you," Severus elaborated. "The Medi Wizards, when they didn't find any trace of identification, brought her to Saint Mungus. Apparently they could not find any Ava Papillon in their records. Old Mrs. Longbottom recognized your mother even with the spells on her. After all, your mother taught Alice almost everything she new of disguises…. Joy has a signature that I hope no one else noticed. Mrs. Longbottom told Dumbledore and thereford we know she is safe," Severus Snape was babblering. He had been sent to comfort the child, and he could find no other way but to spit out information. He hadn't been taught of how to express "comfort". Joy was the one with the emotional package; she always seemed to know the perfect way of communicating. So unlike Severus. So unlike their mother. It seemed that Joy only had trouble communicating to her daughter. The irony of the situation.

"Can you take this off?" Buffy asked suddenly pointing at her still curled and red head.

"I'm afraid not," Severus said shaking his head. "Only Joy can do it fast, quick and painless," At this the girl's eyes widened. He smirked. "Dumbledore could too I suppose, but I'm not sure he'll be coming anytime soon."

"And this Alice person… doesn't she know how…?" Buffy muttered but stopped at the sight of her uncle's eyebrows down in pity for once.

"She's not in the best shape to do it," He replied politely.

"Oh," She said disappointed. "So I guess I can't go to see mom," She muttered.

"It wouldn't be safe," Severus agreed. "You have been seen enough today, we don't know who might have seen you or her… and who might have recognize her."

"Then… who's going to go?" Buffy asked.

"Remus will go," Severus replied.

"But he told them the wrong name," Buffy argued.

"And he was also seen talking to her, he will say he must have been misunderstood… it won't present a problem," Severus reasoned showing no doubt of his statement, even when he thought otherwise.

"Is she alright?" Buffy demanded. No, Joy wasn't alright. Severus wanted to say. Joy wasn't alright like their mother hadn't been alright the last years –months? - of her life. Joy wasn't alright because she knew what was coming their way. Especially for what was coming in Buffy's way. The truth was flying at full speed ready to blow in their heads.

"Mrs. Longbottom told us she hadn't waked up, and she looked a bit pale. Other than that, the mediwitches don't know," Severus replied. It was true; the Mediwitches didn't know _yet_ what Joy had. But Severus knew, _oh yes_, Severus knew well what Joy had. After all, hadn't he been the one who helped Joy to take care of their mother. Hadn't he been the one who noticed the trembleure in Joy's hand the night before, when he had found her staring at old pictures. He was the one who could connect the dots.

Severus knew well the syntomes. Trembleure, paleness, vomit, headatches, anxiousness, and dizziness. The only one he hadn't noticed was the loss of short term memory. He knew them by heart, he knew them well. Everyone else would think they were stress related. But after the Mediwitches would give Joy the potions who never failed with stress related syntoms, they would understand they were dealing with something more serious than stress, something definitely more fatal.

He had given a lot of his free time to research about the disease. The disease that seemed to affect every woman of his family. There were potions already, but only those who prolonged some years the inevitable painful death. Joy had been taking them since they were the wild toddlers who played tag with their small brooms at the backyard. Their mother had not once let him forget Joy needed them to be normal and healthy. Their mother had not once let him forget it was his duty as the elder to look out for Joy when their mother would be gone.

But Severus guessed Joy had stopped taking it after giving birth to Buffy. And now they were left to face the consequences. Severus had tried sending her the potions, during the time she was disconnected. He knew all the ingredients were hard to find, he knew she was problably taking a muggle façade to hide her child. But everytime he tried was also everytime he failed. Fawkes refused to send her anything coming from him. When he told the situation to Dumbledore, the potions came back as filled as they had been sent. He could not understand his sister's stuborn behavior. Especially, because her own daughter could suffer in the future from the same disease. But everytime he tried to reason with her by a letter, the mail was sent closed, the potions were sent complete.

And now he was left with her child. What was he to do?

"Can't you go?" Buffy asked biting her lip. "To the Hospital I mean…" She stuttered.

"I can't, I have no reason to," Severus answered dryly.

"She's your sister!" Buffy hissed annoyed. "I _clearly _don't know what's the stupid feud between you two but-"

"I can't because I'm not supposed to know Ava, not unless I report it to Voldemort," Severus hissed haughtly. "And if I say who she really is, I might put her in more danger than the one she is already. At this time there are Death Eaters everywhere. It is not safe," Severus added regaining his even tone. "I cannot afford having them know she's here…. They'll know she's back and they will guess so are you. And I haven't said anything to Voldemort. If he finds out I'm keeping this type of information from him…"

He would be dead. Severus knew that. It had taken him a lot to convince Voldemort he had had nothing to do with his sister's disappearance when she had left. It had taken him even more to go back to the Dark Lord after what Voldemort had done to Joy. After what Severus had foolishly allowed him to do.

He blocked his emotions away, as he was used to. He stared into the young girl's eyes that showed so many emotions.

"But… Remus saw her and he said the wrong name, when we saw her with the doctors," Buffy reasoned. "Won't that be suspicious?"

"It will be suspicious; they will think Remus is hiding something. But it is better than thinking I am hiding something," Severus said coldly. Buffy mistook the tone and the posture. She saw a cold, calculating, selfish man; instead of what Severus really was.

And Severus noticed it.

Buffy stepped back inside the room and sat down in her bed. She felt as if half of the time she had spent in the house, she had been sitting in the same spot of the same bed. She felt as if she were trapped in a vicious circle of lies and lack of information. She felt cheated. She felt angry. She felt disappointed. She wanted out. She wanted out real bad. But there was this thing nagging her at the back of her head.

Curiosity.

Instinc.

She didn't know which one was. All she knew was that it was strong enough to hold her in a house full of people she didn't know. In a world she didn't know nor understand. She knew there was something important she had to find out. She felt it. And it was about time she found answers.

"Why is it so important?" She asked standing up quickly. She saw her uncle stayed in the frame of the door looking at the window behind her lost in thought. His trance broke with a small blink of his eyes. He stared at her.

"What is important?" Severus returned with an eyebrow raised. He sighed.

"Keeping me hidden," Buffy elaborated stepping forward.

"Think about it, isn't it obvious?" He replied looking interested in Buffy's features. "If Voldemort gets you, you will be dead unless you join him. Which I'm almost sure you won't," He added seeing she said nothing.

"Why wouldn't I?" Buffy asked suspicious.

"You are who you are Buffy. I don't think you are a killer, I know you don't have it in you," Severus said not in the normal, comforting, reassuring voice a normal person would have said. He said it challengly.

"It takes a killer to recognize another doesn't it?" She returned glaring at him.

"Do you have a price Buffy?" He asked his eyes testing her.

"A price?" She echoed disgusted.

"Money, fame, power… maybe love?" He wondered stepping in the room. Her eyes flickered. _Angel._

"I wouldn't kill one for another…" Buffy said back bravely.

"Then you won't be ever able to fight in this war. At war we kill because if we don't, we will be killed. Survival of the fittest." Severus lectured. "If you have a price, an ambition, something to be tempted with …" He shut up staring at her. She stayed in silence staring at Severus who was higher than her for at least two heads. She stepped slowly back. He sighed and stepped back determinedly. "If Voldemort gets a hold of you, he will tempt you with everything you have ever dreamed of. You won't remember anything you fight for, only what you long for. This is why it's so important. I don't want him to get a hold of you because either he'll kill you or he'll break your integrity. I don't know which one would be worse," With this said he stepped to the door and stared at the small frame he left in the middle of the room.

"Which was your desire?" Buffy asked when he was about to leave. Without turning he smiled to himself.

"I did what I did because I thought it was the right thing to do at the time, " He turned his head slightly. "The truth is that if Voldemort gets a hold of what you treasure the most, there's nothing you can do to stop him from using it to make you join him. Don't make the same mistake I did," He recommended. "It does not take long to find out that information." Buffy stared at him frowning.

"Which do you think I desire?"

"The truth," Severus answered slowly. "Just make sure that when you get the truth you get a hold of the original version and not a twisted scheme."

She stayed frozen for several minutes. She knew already what Severus had told her. He knew Voldemort wanted her because she was powerful. He hadn't added anything new. She did consider though what he had said…. Because after all, maybe Voldemort could try to get a hold of the people she had the closest at heart. Giles. Maybe Voldemort was the reason he had gone missing.

She still felt lost in this world. She didn't understand why a dark, evil and twisty wizard would want her. Because even if she had a super strenght and she could heal faster than other people, compared to a fully trained wizard, she was nothing. She could be killed with a curse, or at least that's what she had heard.

She looked around the room and only one thing came to her mind. The box. She knew the box hadn't been returned to Dumbledore –if he was indeed the rightful owner-. Because even if her mother was a witch, she couldn't have found Dumbledore, given him the box, returned to the room and catch her breath so quickly. But there were always the owls, she mentally added. She cursed silently. She looked in some drawers with no success.

There was another knock on the door. She looked at the door guiltly. The room was a bit messed up. Some clothes were out of their drawers, they were laying on the floor. It would be impossible for her to organize them. Unless…

She ran to her bed, trying to make the less noice possible. She pulled out from the shopping bags the box of her wand and she pulled it out. She smirked to herself and had the sudden surprising urge to laugh. She grabbed it confidently but at the same time feeling rather stupid.

Then she remembered the door. She opened it slightly, and found Hermione outside.

"Yeah?" She asked frowning. She saw Hermione hesitating at her look. The red curls where still as perfect as before.

"Professor Dumbledore is here, he asked me to tell you, your mom will be coming in an hour or two," Hermioned informed feeling a bit uncomfortable by briging news in this type of situation.

"Oh… so she's fine?" Buffy asked worried.

"I don't know, they didn't tell me," Hermione said. She saw Buffy biting her lip nervously. "But if she's coming home, she can't be that bad right?" She added offering a smile.

"Yeah..." Buffy agreed softly. She smiled back at Hermione.

"Maybe tomorrow we can take a look at your books, would you like that?" Hermione asked.

"Oh sure," Buffy agreed nodding. She rememebered the wand hidden in her back and she grinned to herself. "It would be nice," She added. Hermione nodded and muttered a goodbye before leaving. Buffy closed the door immediately and switched the lock. She stared at the messed up room and her wand.

"Mmmm, what can I say?" She muttered to herself. "Get your butts back to your drawers now!" She ordered and gave a flick to the wand. Not one garment moved, but the bed's dressing caught fire. She cursed and threw herself to the bed with her mother's coat. She whipped it wildly, until the fire was put off. She stared at her wand on the floor –it had ended up there after setting in fire the bed-. She grabbed it and stared at it as if it had the answers to all of her questions. Then she decided better, she put it back inside its box, and the box inside the shopping bag, and the shopping bag inside the closet. She organised the room manually, and when she finished, she decided to go outside. Maybe she would catch a glimpse of Dumbledore; he had the air of being someone who could answer one's questions no matter what they were.

She went down the stairs, directly to the dinning room –because it was near meal time-. She didn't cross people on her way, like she would have liked. But when she reached the room in question, she only found Snape and Dumbledore inside.

"Buffy," Snape said at the same time Dumbledore said, "Buffy, the person we wanted to see."

"Hermione told me my mom's coming?" Buffy asked going straight to the point.

"Yes," Dumbledore confirmed. "Remus spoke to the mediwitches to arrange everything, she should be here any minute now."

"So what was wrong with her? Why was she unconscious?" Buffy asked.

"She's better now, she's no longer unconscious," Dumbledore answered, avoiding letting Snape talk about Joyce's state.

"But she's fine now?" Buffy insisted.

"Fine enough to come in one piece," Dumbledore answered smiling.

"Could I speak to you… alone…. sir?" Buffy then proceeded giving a sided short glance at Severus.

"Of course," Dumbledore answered in time. Buffy expected for him to be suspicious of her motives. She expected he would try to postpone the dialogue, not to jump right in it. She was used to that reaction from those who held answers. Maybe that was the thing, she had been wrong and he didn't hold any answers for her.

They walked away from where they had been and Dumbledore took her to the room she had first arrived. "What would you like to discuss?" Just like that.

"Many things," Buffy stuttered surprised by his reaction. She had been keeping inside of her many come backs, and many imaginary dialogues between her and the different people who had been censuring information from her. Now that she could not use her very persuative and very prepared phrases, she didn't know where to begin.

"Before you tell me those things, I must warn you. There are things I cannot tell you," Dumbledore said while Buffy organized her thoughts.

"Why?" Buffy asked breaking her line of thought. He smiled.

"Because I do not know," He answered simply. She looked into the wise blue eyes looking for lies. But those eyes were too wise, and too well experimented for her to feel certaine he was indeed not lying to her.

"What does the prophesy say?" She asked.

"To be quite honest, I thought you would ask first how to remove the conseiling charm," He replied chuckling. Buffy then remembered she looked nothing like her normal self.

"Could you?" She asked hesitating.

"Yes, I was your mother's conselor when she made her thesis about conseiling charms," Dumbledore explained. "It was very impressive to have such brilliant student and such excellent results."

"Oh, so she did invent this?" Buffy asked curiously.

"Yes, your mother was one of the most gifted witches I've ever seen. She was not only smart, but she had a creative quality worth getting jelous of. The Snape siblings were both very gifted. Severus talent was kept in Potions, Joy in transfiguration," Dumbledore said watching the interest twinkling in Buffy's eyes. Curiosity of knowing every detail of her mother's childhood. Then she remembered the question that had been left in the air. If her mother was coming back, there was no need of loosing time with the spell.

"What about the prohesy?" She repeated.

"It warns the world about the birth of a very powerful child, one who helds the balance of our entire world at its hands," Dumbledore resumed shortly.

"That's me?" She asked to be sure. He just nodded.

"You have to understand Ms. Summers. We are at the verge of a war, many people worry about the outcome. But many ignore that we have to worry the most about the afterwards. Either if we win, either if we loose, both sides will be weakened. A perfect opportunity for an unknown evil to attack either side," He explained, at the same time looking into Buffy's hazel eyes for understatement.

"That's why Voldemort wants me on his side?" Buffy asked. "Because I'm supposed to assure his weakened troups protection while they get stronger?"

"Yes and no," Dumbledore answered wisely. "He believes you are a great asset to the war as well. I do not believe that if he gained a hold of you he would keep you locked if you were willing to fight at his side. I believe he sees you as a great opportunity of forming a right hand," Dumbledore said. That twinkle in his eyes and that small moment where he had avoided meeting her eyes, told Buffy -the person who she was starting to trust to take her out from ignorance- was once again keeping details from her.

When she was about to explode to the old wizard, the door conveniently opened revealing Mrs. Wealey. "She's here Professor, Joy is back," She announced. Dumbledore looked at Buffy waiting for her to react. Buffy went to Mrs. Wealey at the door, waiting for her to lead the way to Buffy's mother.

Mrs. Wealey took her to the entrance of the house, where Joy was leaning on Remus. She looked tired, pale. Buffy grew worried. She walked to her mom, who just smiled when she saw Buffy coming near her. She left Remus' safe shoulder to hug and kiss her daughter.

"You're ok?" Buffy muttered while she embraced her mother.

"Peachy," Joyce mocked making Buffy smile. "We have to get ourselves out of this looks, at first I must admit I almost didn't recognize you," Joy said grabbing a red curl of Buffy's mass of red curls.

At the entrance there were only Dumbledore, Severus, Remus, Mrs. Wealey, Sirius, Joy and Buffy. Joy didn't have to talk much. With a glance, she made Buffy understand she wanted to go upstairs and rest, instead of staying to chat.

"Let's get you to our room first, that can wait," Buffy proposed worried by her mother. Joy just smiled at her daughter's protectiveness.

"Let me give you hand Buffy," Sirius said noticing Joy's weakened limbs. Before Buffy could say anything. Sirius grabbed Joy's form quickly but safely. He held her bride style in his arms. Buffy could hear her mother chuckling and saying something like "You haven't lost the touch". Buffy also noticed the dark look Severus gave to Sirius and Joyce.

"I have her purse and her coat," Remus said handing them to her. Buffy nodded and murmured thanks, before going after the chuckling adults to her room.

She opened the door and felt silly for interrupting a sweet moment. Sirius was brushing Joyce's hair, and Joyce was giggling softly. Sirius turned when he noticed Buffy. He stood up from the bed, gave a kiss to Joyce's back of the hand.

"I give you back your mother," He said gallantly, Buffy smiled and waited him to leave. She took the place Sirius had been taken before she arrived.

"What's wrong?" Joyce asked.

"How sick are you?" Buffy asked. "Nobody said anything about what you had. I believe you and your friends are taking the custome of letting me in the dark…" Joyce smiled sadly.

"We don't have to worry about this; I was just low in sugar…" Joy said. Buffy didn't believe it. "The day you were born Buffy, I only told one person… from here I mean," Joyce said smiling at the memory. "I wrote to Lily, we had promised that we would do that in case we were ever apart. I wrote her two lines, without telling if you were a girl or your name or where we were," Joyce touched the small pendant she had in her neck. "She sent me this."

Buffy knew that pendant from all her life. Joyce had always said Hank had given it to her when Buffy was born. It was a golden round piece that didn't say anything. Everytime Buffy asked her father what did it mean he would look confused and ask her of what she was talking about. Buffy always thought this was a hidden joke to her mom and dad.

"I put a spell on Hank to make him believe he had given it to me. That's why nobody could tell you what it meant," Joyce smiled at Buffy. "To open it, you just need a simple spell," She added. "Where's your wand?" Joyce asked. Buffy blushed, remembering the past encounter with the wicked wand. She looked at it in the closet, inside the bag, inside the box. She pulled it out uncomfortably, and showed it to her mom. "I think it's time for you to learn your first spell," Joyce announced grinning. She rose from her former position; she sat in the bed, closing her eyes. Buffy noticed the effort the simple move was costing her mom.

"We can wait..." Buffy offered looking worried.

"I'm alright Buffy," Joyce assured. She pulled out her own wand. "Try doing this move with the wrist," Joyce showed with her right wrist, Buffy mimicked. "Very well, do it a few times to see if you get it," Joyce asked. Buffy repeated it having problems only the first time.

"What are we going to do?" Buffy asked.

"A well known spell that can put you out of your troubles if you forgot the car key's inside the car," Joyce explained grinning. "It's called Alohomora," Joyce said. She grabbed her wand and pointing at the drawers while making the twist. "_Alohomora,_" She said. A ray of light left the wand quickly and the drawers opened.

"Nifty," Buffy said surprised. She closed the drawers and tightened her grip on her wand. "Alohomora!" She exclaimed. The drawers didn't only open, they flew across the room and went at full speed across the room, breaking the windows and falling out of the room. Joyce reacted quickly.

"Accio drawers!" She yelled pointing at the windows. The drawers came back flying and before hitting Joyce they stopped and fell softly over Joyce's bed. "Reparo," Joyce muttered and pointed once again at the window which repaired itself quickly.

"Sorry," Buffy said shurgging. She grabbed the drawers and took them back to it's place. "Maybe it's better I leave it as it is," Buffy said leaving the wand in front of her mom.

"No Buffy, you just need to learn a bit before controlling it totally. I must admit I didn't think the spell would happen the very first time, much less that it would work with such intensity. Maybe being a slayer intensifies the spells…" She suggested. "Don't worry; you'll get a hold to it."

"Well, you better open the pendant, if I do it we risk for it to blow up," Buffy said grabbing her wand once again.

"Let's make a deal, you will be the one to open it, but first you have to learn how to control it," Joyce proposed. Buffy nodded. Joyce took it off from her neck and handed it to Buffy. Buffy smiled.

"Don't you want to keep it?" Buffy asked. After all this was problably the last thing Lily had given to her mother. Joyce shook her hand.

"It was for you," Joyce cleared out. "Do you want to try something else?" Joyce asked grinning. Buffy grinned back.

"I know!" Buffy said grinning. She made the small flicker while saying: "Abracadabra!" She pointed at the end with her wand at the pendant. Joyce giggled at first but then she turned serious.

"Buffy, there is one spell that is a bit similar to the thing you just said. It is the killing curse, it is forbidden to use it. I would prefer that in company of wizards you never say this as a joke. Not all wizards are familiar with muggle terminations, and you might get yourself in trouble for it," Joyce explained.

"Oh," Buffy said. She nodded. "Any other pop culture references can't be used?" Buffy asked smirking.

"Like for example?" Joy asked

"Salagadoola menchicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo," Buffy sang.

Mother and daughter laughed together like they hadn't done in a while.

Forgetting all about prophesies, slayers and wizards for one moment.

Little did they know it would be their last.


End file.
